d3 PTR Patch Notes: 2.4.3.41863

[Stan 5,240]

Build 41863 has been deployed to Public Test Realms. We're getting a new Legendary gem. Here are the complete Patch Notes with the latest changes highlighted in red.

Blizzard Entertainment

GENERAL

• New Feature: 20th Anniversary Event
  • A mysterious group of Cultists is stirring up trouble! Hunt them down in Adventure Mode to uncover clues that reveal a portal into Tristram’s past, and rediscover the terrifying darkness that took hold of the town so many years ago…
  • This event is only available in January

    • Please note that the anniversary event features a pre-cursor event

    • This will start a few hours before the rest of the event is available on the PTR

• Hardware Support
  • Support has been added for the Corsair Utility Engine (CUE) SDK and Razer peripherals
    • Supported backlit keyboards will respond to certain in-game situations like Legendary and Set item drops, characters leveling up, and more
    • Players will need to update their firmware for supported devices to use this feature
  • Added a 64-bit client as default for 64-bit Microsoft Windows operating systems
    • With this, players should see improvements to system performance and faster loading times
    • This change uses DirectX 11 natively, which brings support for normal maps, per pixel lighting and improved anti-aliasing options
    • The 32-bit client is still available as an option through the Battle.net Launcher
  • Added a screen space ambient occlusion (SSAO) pixel shader option
  • Added a large cursor option
  • Improved support for 60Hz+ monitors

• Bug Fixes
  • (PTR Only) Fixed a variety of issues causing client crashes, improving overall stability
  • (PTR Only) Fixed an issue preventing the SSAO feature from being disabled correctly
  • (PTR Only) Fixed an issue causing the gamma slider in the 64 bit client to work incorrectly

CLASSES

• Barbarian
  • Overpower
    • Now has 3 charges
    • Cooldown per charge remains 12 seconds with a chance to be reduced slightly by critical strikes

• Bug Fixes
  • Fixed an issue which caused Wave of Light to sometimes fail to deal damage when players were under the effect of Epiphany
  • Fixed a bug which prevented a Hydra from being spawned when two Mirror Images attempted to cast Summon Hydra at the same time
  • Fixed an issue which caused the active effect of Earth Ally and Fire Ally to not benefit from Attacks Per Second or +Mystic Ally damage
  • Fixed an issue which prevented the Archon version of Teleport from correctly incorporating the player’s attacks per second
  • (PTR Only) Fixed an issue that prevented Grenades from dealing Area Damage
  • (PTR Only) Fixed an issue that prevented Grenades from utilizing Life on Hit
  • (PTR Only) Fixed an issue which prevented critical strikes from correctly resetting the recharge time on Overpower

ITEMS

• Legendary Items
  • Red Soulstone Shard
    • New Legendary Gem
      • Periodically struggle for control, unleashing a ring of Fire that inflicts 1000% 12,500% weapon damage to enemies it passes through
        • With the above change, the primary effect of the gem deals significantly more damage at the gem’s base level, but scales more slowly with additional levels
      • After gaining a level, your resource costs are removed and cooldowns on skills are reduced by 75% for 15 30 seconds (Requires Rank 25)
• Class Specific Items
  • New items have been added to the game
    • Crusader
      • Armor of Akkhan
        • Talisman of Akkhan (Amulet)
          • Has been added as a 7th piece to Armor of Akkhan
          • The set’s current bonuses and powers remain the same
        • This amulet will always roll with Critical Hit Chance in addition to 3 other random affixes
  • Some existing class-specific Legendary items have been updated to include a unique Legendary power
    • Note: Existing items will not be affected by the following changes; only new versions of the items will roll with the added Legendary power
    • With the below changes, the minimum levels required to use these items have been adjusted to match the level at which their corresponding skills unlock
    • Barbarian
      • Saffron Wrap
        • The damage of your next Overpower is increased by 40-50% for each enemy hit, up to a maximum of 20 enemies
    • Crusader
      • Faithful Memory
        • Each enemy hit by Falling Sword increases the damage of Blessed Hammer by 50-60% for 10 seconds
    • Demon Hunter
      • Hellcat Waistguard
        • Grenades have a chance to bounce 3-5 times, dealing an additional 50% damage on each bounce
        • This bonus is increased to 800% on the final bounce
        • The following skills are affected by this power:
          • Cluster Arrow – Dazzling Arrow, Cluster Bombs, Loaded for Bear, and No Rune
          • Rain of Vengeance – Anathema
          • Strafe – Demolition
          • Rapid Fire – Bombardment
    • Monk
      • Rabid Strike
        • Spirit spenders that teleport you while Epiphany is active are also mimicked on a distant target for free
    • Witch Doctor
      • The Barber
        • Instead of dealing direct damage, your Spirit Barrage now accumulates on the target
        • When you stop channeling, it explodes dealing 225-250% of the accumulated damage to all enemies within 15 yards
    • Wizard
      • Manald Heal
        • Enemies stunned with Paralysis also take 3000-3500%13,000-14,000% weapon damage as Lightning
  • The functionality of some items has changed
    • Crusader
      • Defender of Westmarch
        • Can no longer summon a wolf more than once per second
        • Damage done by the wolf is increased for each block made during the interim
    • Witch Doctor
      • Jeram's Bracers
        • The minimum level for this item to drop has changed from 12 to 31 in order to match the level at which Wall of Death unlocks
• Bug Fixes
  • Hellfire Amulet
    • Fixed an issue where Fetishes spawned by this item with the Fetish Sycophants passive would not reduce the cooldown of Big Bad Voodoo correctly when Starmetal Kukri was equipped
  • Illusory Boots
    • Will now properly allow Crusaders using Steed Charge to pass through walls
  • Pinto's Pride
    • Fixed a bug where the bonus Wave of Light damage from this item was not being calculated correctly
  • Flail of the Ascended
    • Now takes into account +Shield Bash affix bonuses in its damage
    • Damage stacks will now persist when changing gear and picking up items
  • The Barber
    • (PTR Only) Fixed an issue that was causing the explosion created by this item to fail if a large amount of damage was stored
  • Rabid Strike
    • (PTR Only) Fixed an issue preventing this item from correctly rolling 4 affixes
    • (PTR Only) Fixed an issue which prevented the mimics spawned by this item from inheriting the Lashing Tail Kick attack speed bonus from Rivera Dancers
    • (PTR Only) Fixed an issue preventing mimics spawned by this item from benefitting from Tzo Krin’s Gaze and Lashing Tail Kick: Hand of Ytar
  • Fixed an issue which sometimes caused cosmetic pets to be dismissed unintentionally, requiring the player to resummon them through the collections UI
  • Fixed a bug causing transmogrify options to not properly unlock sometimes when first acquiring an item which grants a new transmogrify option
  • Fixed a bug which caused the buff from the Legendary item Ahvarion, Spear of Lycander to end when changing floors in a Greater Rift
  • Fixed an issue which caused the Bones cosmetic pet to incorrectly produce sound when players interacted with some user interface elements
  • Fixed an issue which caused +Elemental damage bonuses on weapons to override the damage bonus granted to Ancient Spear by Skular’s Salvation and its elemental type
  • Fixed an issue which allowed Necrosis damage from the Helltooth Harness set to be reflected back by some enemies onto Witch Doctors using projectiles like Poison Dart
  • (PTR Only) Fixed an issue which caused the Soulstone Shard to trigger its special effect while players were in town
  • (PTR Only) Fixed an issue causing gem removal costs to be reduced to zero

SEASONS

• Season Journey
  • The Destroyer and Guardian tiers of the Season Journey will no longer require players to augment an Ancient Legendary item using level 30 or higher and level 40 or higher Legendary gems, respectively
  • Along with this, the Conqueror tier now requires players to augment one Ancient Legendary item using a Legendary Gem at level 50 or higher
• Bug Fixes
  • (PTR Only) Fixed an issue which caused text display issues with some Season Journey objectives

ADVENTURE MODE

• Bounties
  • The number of enemy kills required to complete the following Bounties has been reduced
    • Kill Aloysius
    • Kill Axegrave
    • Kill Bholen
    • Kill Captain Donn Adams
    • Kill The Crusher
• Rifts
  • The Cesspools map has been adjusted
    • Enemy density and overall map size have been reduced
    • This area can now appear as the starting dungeon in Rifts and Greater Rifts
• Greater Rifts
  • We have made a number of changes to improve the play experience of Greater Rifts
    • Monsters should now be more evenly distributed on each floor in Greater Rifts
    • The size of each floor in a Greater Rift is now more consistent
      • On average, a rift should take between two and four floors to clear
    • There is no longer an increased chance to see the same tile set when you venture down a floor in a Greater Rift
    • There is now a guaranteed area at the entrance of each floor with no monsters
      • This area is just large enough for ranged characters to maneuver
    • Several additional monster types can now appear as Champions and Elites
  • The stacking effect of the following is now cleared upon entering a Greater Rift
    • The items Lord Greenstone’s Fan, Fortress Ballista and Flail of the Ascended
    • The skills Arcane Dynamo and Mythic Rhythm
  • The gold reward and empower cost for Greater Rift 25 and above have been increased
    • The ratio between gold reward and empower cost remains about the same
• Greed’s Realm
  • The portal to Greed’s Realm will now close 60 seconds after opening Greed’s chest
  • With this, players may now open multiple portals to the realm in a single game
• Zones
  • The waypoint for Pandemonium Fortress Level 2 in Adventure Mode has been moved from the entrance to the midpoint of the level in order to provide quicker access to some bounties
    • With this change, bounties requiring you to kill unique enemies will only spawn these enemies in the first half of the dungeon, and all monsters on the map will contribute to bounty progress
• Bug Fixes
  • Fixed an issue preventing the scene for Bounty: Research Problems from spawning
  • Fixed bugs that led to large open areas with no monsters in some rooms in Greater Rifts, which was especially common near the entrance to certain floors

MONSTERS

• Enemies
  • Quality of life improvements have been made to enemies
    • Several enemies that leap at the player can now be killed in mid-air, including Winged Assassins, Punishers, Lacuni Huntresses, and Burrowing Leapers
    • Several enemies that can become un-attackable, such as Sandsharks, Snakemen, and Rockworms now spend more time vulnerable. When these enemies do burrow or stealth, they no longer remain in this state for more than 3 seconds
    • In addition, emerging Rockworms now always show ground cracks to help attentive players avoid their initial attack
• Enemy Affixes
  • Shielding
    • Will now be cancelled immediately if the shielded monster is the last remaining monster in a pack
  • Reflects Damage
    • Now fires a projectile instead of instantly dealing damage to the player
    • The warning duration for this affix has been reduced from 2 seconds to 1, and its active duration has been reduced from 6 seconds to 4
  • Electrified
    • Crawling lightning generated by this affix now pierces, allowing it to damage multiple targets in succession
    • With this, the damage caused by this affix has been reduced by about 35%
  • Juggernaut
    • New enemy affix
      • Juggernaut monsters are permanently immune to crowd control effects, but move more slowly than normal monsters
      • Only a rare Elite enemy can be a Juggernaut
  • Bug Fixes
    • Fixed an issue which caused Winged Assassins to sometimes travel across the ground instead of through the air when leaping
    • Fixed an issue which prevented Greater Rift Guardians from reliably teleporting to players when they spawned more than a few screens away
    • Fixed an issue which sometimes cause Rift Guardians to spawn in a location where they couldn’t be targeted

BOSSES

• Belial
  • Now transitions more swiftly between his normal and larger version boss phases

ACHIEVEMENTS

• Bug Fixes
  • Fixed the wording on the “Socket To Me” achievement to clarify that socketing only one gem is required

QUALITY OF LIFE

• Dyes
  • Can now be accessed through a new tab at the Mystic
    • This includes Collector’s Edition dyes
  • With this change, dyes will no longer be sold by vendors
• Bug Fixes
  • Fixed display and text issues with some skills and items
  • Fixed an issue causing keybind issues when the UI was hidden
  • Fixed a bug which caused Followers to sometimes become idle in combat
  • Fixed an issue which prevented Followers from being dismissed while they were incapacitated in battle
  • Fixed an issue which allowed pets and Followers to be attacked immediately after exiting a portal

PTR Only

• PTR Only
  • PTR Bag of Fortune
    • Players on the PTR will now receive a special bag from normal Rift Guardians Djank M'iem, a vendor who appears in each town hub in Adventure Mode and Campaign Mode
    • This bag costs 300 Blood Shards and contains class-specific items that are being tested for the upcoming patch
    • This bag will always drop items which are specific to the class which opens it
    • In cases where the PTR bag contains a weapon, the bag will also drop a Flawless Emerald and a Ramaladni’s Gift

(Source)

Patch 2.4.3 brings a graphics update. Seasons will also be available on consoles soon. The last patch notes can be found here.

[demonardvark 556]

lol i like the red soulstone shard a lot, fun lore throwback

[Valks 2,375]

On 11/23/2016 at 1:17 PM, demonardvark said:

lol i like the red soulstone shard a lot, fun lore throwback

Yeah, it's also nice that it's not going to be some game-breaking gem tbh. Would suck just a little bit!