Friday, June 29, 2012

Diablo 3 Server Maintenance Scheduled For Next Week


Diablo 3 servers and web services are scheduled for maintenance downtime on Tuesday, July 3rd. Quoting from the Battle.net forums:
We will be performing scheduled maintenance on Tuesday, July 3rd. Maintenance will begin at 5:00 AM PDT and conclude at approximately 11:00 AM PDT. During this time, servers and many web services will be unavailable. Thank you for your patience.

Source: Battle.net Forum



Diablo 3 Hotfix Update For June 29


More Diablo 3 hotfixes were released today to address some gameplay and auction house bugs. The hotfix notes are as follows:

Bug Fixes:
  • General
    • Identifying an item will no longer allow players to circumvent a skill’s attack animation cooldown.
    • Fixed a bug that allowed players to temporarily increase their attack speed or double-cast a skill by clicking repeatedly on Town Portal while performing an ability.
    • Fixed some additional (but rare) game crashes.
  • Auction House
    • Fixed a bug that was causing stacks of commodities in a player’s stash to update incorrectly if the items being sent from the Completed Tab were purchased from multiple different sellers.

Source: Battle.net Blog



Thursday, June 28, 2012

Diablo 3 Video: The Enchantress Follower Guide





Diablo 3 Hotfix Update For June 28


As we reported earlier, the Diablo 3 patch 1.0.3b release was delayed and Blizzard has decided to go ahead and produce some hotfixes to fix some gaming issues that the patch release would have addressed. The hotfixes were released earlier today and the game changes are as follows:

Item Drop Rates
  • The drop rates for high-end items (items level 61-63) have been increased for Acts III and IV of Hell difficulty and Acts I – IV of Inferno difficulty:
    • Hell – Act III and Act IV
      • iLvl 61: 13.9%, up from 9%
      • iLvl 62: 3.45%, up from 1.9%
      • iLvl 63: 0% (no change)
    • Inferno – Act I
      • iLvl 61: 23.9%, up from 17.7%
      • iLvl 62: 12.6%, up from 7.9%
      • iLvl 63: 4.8%, up from 2.0%
    • Inferno – Act II
      • iLvl 61: 23.3%, up from 18.6%
      • iLvl 62: 18.6%, up from 12.4%
      • iLvl 63: 9.3%, up from 4.1%
    • Inferno – Act III and Act IV
      • iLvl 61: 27.1%, up from 24.1%
      • iLvl 62: 21.7%, up from 16.1%
      • iLvl 63: 16.3%, up from 8.0%
Boss Drops
  • Bosses are now guaranteed to drop at least 1 Rare item for players with 4 stacks of Nephalem Valor and at least 2 Rare items for players with 5 stacks of Nephalem Valor.
Bug Fixes
  • Fixed a bug with several items that would allow those items to block pathing when dropped on the ground.
  • Fixed a crash that could sometimes occur when a player was interacting with environment objects (e.g. opening chests or clicking on a lectern).
  • Fixed several additional game and service crashes.

Source: Battle.net Blog



Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Diablo 3 Patch 1.0.3b Delayed



The release of Diablo 3's patch 1.0.3b, which was slated to be delivered later this week, has been delayed due to some testing issues. However, some new hotfix udpates (originally part of patch 1.0.3b) are scheduled to be delivered tomorrow. The hotfixes include changes to increase the drops for inferno difficulty.


Source: Battle.net Forum



Some Diablo 3 Digital Download Restrictions Removed



Along with patch 1.0.3a Blizzard has removed a few of the temporary restrictions to the Diablo 3 digital download version. As we reported earlier, those who purchased the Diablo 3 digital download version of the game were not allowed full access to all gaming features until their payment was fully verified. Gamers could be stuck playing a limited demo-like version of Diablo 3 until payment was verified and in some cases this process could take up to 72 hours. These restrictions were put in place by Blizzard as a security measure to deter credit card fraud.

Blizzard will now be removing the level 13 character cap restriction and will also allow for further exploration beyond the Act 1 area restrictions. However, for security reasons, many temporary restrictions will still be in place, such as:

  • No public game access for unverified digital purchasers.
  • No auction house access (real-money or gold) for unverified digital purchasers.
  • Unverified digital purchasers cannot trade items or drop items for other players to receive.
  • Unverified digital purchasers are not able to chat in any public or game channels.
  • Unverified digital purchasers cannot attach a custom message to friend requests, but they can send/accept friend requests, and play with their friends.
  • Global Play is not available for unverified digital purchasers.

Source: Battle.net Forum



Monday, June 25, 2012

Diablo 3 Patch 1.0.3a




As we posted earlier, the Diablo 3 servers and web services are scheduled for maintenance downtime on Tuesday, June 26th. The latest patch update 1.0.3a will also be delivered.

The scheduled maintenance times for each region are:
The Americas: 5:00 a.m. PDT to 7:00 a.m. PDT
Asia: 1:00 p.m. PDT to 3:00 p.m. PDT
Europe: 8:00 p.m. PDT to 10:00 p.m. PDT
Diablo 3 Patch 1.0.3a notes and changes are as follows:

Bug fixes to Witch Doctor's Zombie Bears:
  • Fixed a bug where Zombie Bears were unable to attack targets on slopes.
  • Zombie Bears should no longer become stuck on objects with which they shouldn’t have collision.
Item durability fix:
  • Equipped items will now take "wear-and-tear" durability damage at half the previous rate.
    • Please note that durability loss as the result of normal combat is different from the 10% durability loss characters will incur when they die. Equipped items have always suffered durability loss while fighting, and we are simply slowing the rate at which the loss occurs.
Item bug fixes:
  • Fixed a bug that was causing Unique monsters to not drop the appropriate amount of loot when slain.
  • Fixed a bug with linking items with 3 gem sockets.
  • It is no longer possible to create fake achievement links.
General bug fixes:
  • Fixed a bug that was causing the “Switch Hero” button to occasionally disappear after leaving a game while in town.
  • Fixed several gold and leveling exploits.
  • Fixed several game and service crashes (for Mac and PC).

Source: Battle.net Forum



Diablo 3 Video: Quick Tip To Make Your Scoundrel Follower More Useful





Diablo 3 Video: How To Defeat The Skeleton King - Tips & Strategies





Saturday, June 23, 2012

North American Diablo 3 Servers Scheduled For Maintenance Next Week



The North American region Diablo 3 servers and web services are scheduled for maintenance downtime on Tuesday, June 26th. Quoting from the Battle.net forums:

We will be performing scheduled maintenance on Tuesday, June 26th. Maintenance will begin at 5:00 AM PDT and conclude at approximately 7:00 AM PDT. During this time, servers and many web services will be unavailable. Thank you for your patience.

Source: Battle.net Forum



Get More Detailed Diablo 3 Skill Information By Enabling Advanced Tooltips

To really get the most out of your Diablo 3 gameplay experience you need to enable advanced tooltips in the Diablo 3 options. By default, Diablo 3 only has simple tooltips enabled, which only provides a small amount of skill information in the pop-up window when you hover your mouse over any of your characters skills. By enabling the advanced tooltips feature you will see much more detailed skill information and descriptions, which is very useful when playing the game.

More detailed skill information with advanced tooltips enabled.

Here is how to enable it:

Press the ESC (Escape) key on your keyboard to open the Diablo 3 Game Menu window. Next click the Options menu to open the options window. Then to the left side of the window click the Gameplay menu. To the right of the window you will see, under the Interface heading, the list of features you can click to enable or disable. Click and enable the Show Advanced Toolips feature. Next click the Apply and then the Accept buttons, then Return To Game.

The Diablo 3 gameplay options menu. Click to enlarge.

There you have it. Enjoy!



Diablo 3 Video: How To Defeat Diablo - Tips & Strategies





Thursday, June 21, 2012

Diablo 3 Character Class Poll







Blizzard Nerfs Diablo 3 Digital Version

If all the nerfs in the new Diablo 3 patch 1.0.3 weren't enough to cause gamers worldwide to rage, purchasers of the digital download version of Diablo 3 will now have to wait for up to 72 hours before getting full access to the game. A lot of irate gamers will now be stuck playing the Diablo 3 Starter Edition for 3 days, which is basically a demo version of the game, with limited access to gaming areas and a level 13 character cap. Not cool Blizzard! Not cool...





Source: 1up.com



Diablo 3 Video: Tips For Surviving The Nightmare

Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Diablo 3 Video: How To Defeat Azmodan - Tips & Strategies





Diablo 3 Patch 1.0.3 Bug List Update



Blizzard has updated the list of known issues and bugs related to the recent release of the Diablo 3 patch 1.0.3. Quoting from the Battle.net forum, the currently known issues are as follows:


Achievements
  • The achievement "Espionage" cannot be completed because the lore "Battlefield Reports" doesn't drop in game.

Battle.net
  • We are aware of players who are unable to gain EXP on their characters and their followers. Customer Service has been made aware of this issue as it may be an account issue.
  • Workaround: Change your password.
  • It is possible for the Switch Hero button to disappear.

Combat
  • Demon Hunter: By using Fan of Knives with a quiver equipped but no weapon, then equipping a weapon, you can bug out your DPS such that you deal no damage at all to anything.
  • Demon Hunter - Strafe: Drifting Shadow can cause you to rubber band at low hatred when casting it with high attack speed and/or latency.
  • Witch Doctor - Zombie Handler: Zombie Handler's health buff does not dynamically update.
  • Witch Doctor - Spirit Vessel: Spirit Vessel does not allow you to walk through enemy collision.
  • Witch Doctor - Zombie Charger: Zombie Bears stop abruptly with small bumps of physics.
  • Witch Doctor - Zombie Charger: Zombie Bears are not casting properly on slopes.

Environment
  • Act 2 - Ancient Cave Level 2: A Resplendent Chest's items can become unreachable when opened in a location in this area.
  • Act 2 - Hidden Aqueducts: Loot can fall behind a chest by an altar near the Jeweler, making it unreachable.
  • Act 2 - Hidden Aqueducts: You can use movement spells to clip into the empty altar prop and exploit combat by being out of range of melee monster attacks.
  • Act 3 - Arreat Crater Level 1: The loot from a specific rare chest falls into the chest and cannot be picked up in this area.

Items
  • Existing Legendary items that had the bugged Increased Attack Speed affixes will not get fixed until a future patch. All newly-created Legendary items (created by the player or the game) will correctly increase your attack speed.

Monsters
  • The player can be feared in rapid succession by Nightmarish monsters.
  • Arghus the Collector (a unique armor vendor) cannot spawn.
  • If you attack a Beast with the Illusionist affix just prior to its charge, it will become unresponsive.
  • Bloodhawk monsters can perform their diving attack repeatedly while remaining untargetable.
  • Cydaea's enrage timer does not function properly. It is possible for a player to fight her without her enrage timer activating.
  • Siegebreaker does not incapacitate players who are picked up in his hand, allowing them to use various abilities, some of which can cause unintended behavior from Siegebreaker.
  • The charge portion of The Butcher's Frenzy ability can hit players standing behind the boss.
  • The Oppressor monster's charge attack deals damage twice.
  • Act 3 - Tower of the Damned Level 1: Claw Bomb are dealing too much damage in Inferno difficulty.
  • Act 4 - The Silver Spire Level 1: The Aspect of Destruction's max and current health increase every time he splits with the illusionist power.
  • Act 4 - Secellum of Virtue: The monsters in this world do not grant XP when they are killed.

Followers
  • Monsters with the Reflect Damage affix will reflect damage caused by Followers onto the player.

Quests
  • Act 4 - Great Span: The ice barricade on the left side of the arena does not form if you quickly skip the cutscene during "Prime Evil : Kill Izual."
  • Unlocking a new questline, then starting a game on a previous questline can cause the Quest Selection menu to not show the most recently unlocked questline.
  • Act 4 - The Pinnacle of Heaven: It is possible to get stuck at a black screen if you immediately skip the cutscene during the quest "Prime Evil : Climb to the Pinnacle of Heaven in the Silver Spire," blocking progression.
  • Act 4 - Holy Sanctum: The puzzle platforms are not all spawning in this area.

User Interface
  • Multiple Life UI indicators do not update when the hero heals or otherwise avoid a killing blow.
  • Logging out while taking a town portal back to your initial location results in a disconnect.
  • After patching, your Diablo III preferences will be reset. Please go to the Options menu and change your preferences to your liking. This will only happen once after patching and will not happen once they are changed back.
  • The FPS feature does not update and will always show your FPS at 0.

Compatibility
  • Running programs that put an overlay over Diablo III (such as Mumble, Xfire, and MSI Afterburner) can cause Diablo III to crash. Use these overlays at your own risk.

Source: Battle.net Forum



Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Diablo 3 Video: World's First Hardcore Inferno Diablo Kill





Diablo 3 Patch 1.0.3 Now Available

Diablo 3 patch 1.0.3 is currently live in the American region. The 1.0.3 patch comes with a lot of updates and changes which you can read about in the patch notes here: Diablo 3 Patch 1.0.3 Notes






Increased Attack Speed Nerfed In Diablo 3 Patch 1.0.3



A nerf to the increased attack speed (IAS) item modifier comes along with the new 1.0.3 patch to Diablo 3. Diablo himself is reportedly waiting to take revenge against all those adventurers who hurt him with those pesky increased attack speed items.

Quoting from the Battle.net Forum post:

As a reminder, we will be nerfing "Increases Attack Speed" (IAS) effects on all items except quivers with the 1.0.3 patch. Please note that this change does affect unidentified items as well, as item affixes and ranges are determined at the time of an item being dropped, and not when identified.
Characters with IAS on their items will see a drop in their character sheet damage, as character sheet damage takes into account attack speed (among other factors).
This change should not be confused with the Legendary buffs coming in a future patch (not 1.0.3), and those buffs, as previously mentioned, will not be retroactive.





Diablo 3 Video: How To Kill The Butcher - Tips & Strategies





Monday, June 18, 2012

Diablo 3 Patch 1.0.3 Goes Live Tomorrow


Diablo 3 servers will be down for maintenance tomorrow (June, 19) at 3:00 AM PDT in order to deploy the 1.0.3 patch update. The servers should be up again by 1:00 PM PDT.

Quoting from the forum:


Important: Please note that you will not be prompted to download patch 1.0.3 until the patch is live in your home region. If you are logging in from a European or Asian client, you will need to wait for this patch to release in that region before it can be installed. Additionally, if your home region is the Americas, you will be unable to log into Europe or Asia using Global Play after patch 1.0.3 is live until those regions have also patched.

For reference, here are the scheduled maintenance times for each region:

The Americas: 3:00 a.m. PDT (6/19) to 1:00 p.m. PDT (6/19)
Europe: 6:00 p.m. PDT (6/19) to 4:00 a.m. PDT (6/20)
Asia: 1:00 p.m. PDT (6/20) to 11:00 p.m. PDT (6/20)



Source: Battle.net Forum



Diablo 3 Video: Ranged Barbarian Build





Saturday, June 16, 2012

"Ask Me Almost Anything" Diablo 3 Designers Transcript



Blizzard has posted a transcript of the "Ask Me Almost Anything" Reddit discussion with Diablo 3 game designers on the Battle.net Blog. Delve into the thought process of the game designers and learn why they did what they did with Diablo 3. It's an interesting read to be sure. So, check it out for yourself right here: Diablo III Developer AMAA Transcript





The Korean Government To Ban Trading Of Virtual Items

The South Korean government has decided to place a ban on the trading of all virtual goods and items. Of course, this means no Diablo 3 RMAH (Real Money Auction House) for the Korean Region. The ban also makes the use of farming bots illegal. Anyone found to be in violation will be issued up to 50 Million KRW ($43,000 USD) in fines and also potentially face jail time of up to five years. Even the horrible demons in the deepest nether regions of hell are left trembling at the thought of that!




Thursday, June 14, 2012

Diablo 3 Real Money Auction House Goes Live In Europe Tomorrow


Big news for all you Diablo 3 euro gamers out there, the Real Money Auction House is set to be released in the European Region tomorrow.
 

Source: Eurogamer.net



Diablo 3 Game Creation Limit

A recent gold and item farming exploit in Diablo 3, that players were using to farm unlimited amounts of gold and items by logging into the game and then logging back out, has caused Blizzard to implement a new fix which restricts the amount of games that can be created within a short time frame. However, the new game creation limit has also been causing problems for legitimate players causing 10 to 15 minute delays making players wait before they could log into the game again. Thankfully Blizzard has decided to shut off the game creation limit for now until a better solution for the problem can be found.


Source: Cinemablend.com