d3 First Look: Patch 2.5.0 [Official]

[Starym 3,800]

The Armory, Crating Materials storage, Primal Ancients and changes to Adventure Mode are detailed in this official preview.

The Armory, Crating Materials storage, Primal Ancients, changes to Adventure Mode.

One of the bigger patches in recent memory is going to be here "soon" and we got a preview for the major features it brings with it. 2.5.0 features: the Armory, showing up right next to your stash, which allows you to switch between 5 builds you previously saved, including skills, runes, Kanai, items and gems; the crafting materials UI, another in the "finally" category, that takes all those mats from our inventory/stash and puts them in a nice collection; Adventure Mode is getting some tweaks, mainly the removal of bonus bounties; we get some examples of Primal Ancients as well.

So, whatever "soon" means, when the patch hits will be a pretty good time to come back to the game, since it seems the Necromancer is still a ways off, as it's coming in the second half of 2017. You should also check out the Female Necromancer preview, featuring all new skills!

Blizzard (source)

Patch 2.5.0 is right around the corner! Read on to learn more about the new features coming in our latest patch, including The Armory, Primal Ancients, and numerous quality of life updates.

The Armory

We’re happy to present a long-awaited feature we know you’ve been eager to get your hands on! The Armory enables players to store up to five complete character builds on each character, allowing you to swap seamlessly between set items, skills, runes, and gems with the click of a button.

Any items equipped via the Armory will automatically swap to wherever the exchanged equipment was stored—whether that’s back into your stash or your personal inventory. Gems and Legendary Gems will also swap and, if you ‘ve upgraded or leveled up your gems, the Armory will automatically select the highest quality or level available for that gem type. Lastly, your skill bar will also update to your selected skills, rune, and Kanai’s Cube power preferences, and you’re welcome to name your setups whatever you like!

As a note, the Armory does not store Paragon points, so you’ll need to redistribute those if you have a preference with your build. However, we’ve added a new hotkey to use your points more efficiently. While you can still spend 10 points at a time by holding Shift and clicking, you can now spend them 100 points at a time by holding Ctrl and clicking!

Spend those points like your life depends on it!

Crafting Materials UI

Sifting through your crafting materials in your stash is a thing of the past! All crafting materials including Arcane Dust, Veiled Crystals, Reusable Parts, Death’s Breaths, bounty crafting materials, and Hellfire crafting materials are stored in a convenient, separate UI tab. Just click the small anvil located next to your gold total in your inventory screen to view your materials.

All crafting materials will be moved automatically into the Crafting Materials tab upon the launch of Patch 2.5.0, so there’s no need to store them somewhere specific before the patch hits. When using your crafting materials at Kanai’s Cube, there is now a convenient new Fill button to automagically transport your items directly into the cube interface for transmuting.

Adventure Mode Updates

Several additional changes are coming to Adventure Mode, from iterating on Greater Rift changes that were made in Patch 2.4.3 to quality of life updates coming for Bounties and Horadric Caches.

First, the frequency of several different tile sets in Greater Rifts has been adjusted. Many of the more frequent areas, like various caves and Keep Depths, have had their appearance rate reduced. On the flip side, wide open areas that were previously rarer, like Festering Woods or Stinging Winds, have had their appearance rate increased. This should, overall, result in a more varied environmental experience in Greater Rifts.

 
Wiiiiiiide open spaaaaaces, yeaaaaah.

In addition, bonus acts in Bounties are being removed. Bonus Caches previously granted by the old system have instead been combined with the base Horadric Cache to form Large Horadric Chests. These are granted after completing a full set of five Bounties in any one Act and hold the total amount of materials and loot that previously would have been contained in the two separate caches. Now, you can complete whichever Acts you prefer in any order and at your leisure without feeling like every game session needs to be at least twenty-five Bounties long.

Primal Ancients

Players have different goals from Season to Season or game session to game session, and for some of our more dedicated players, there wasn’t a clear progression track beyond augmenting your Ancient Legendary items or completing the Season Journey. Enter Primal Ancients, a new tier of very rare Ancient items that allow you to aim for that perfect set of gear.

Primal Ancients are Ancient items with perfectly rolled affixes. This means every affix including Primary, Secondary, and Legendary are at their ideal value, whether that means the maximum or minimum value. While the items don’t try to guess what kind of affixes are perfect for your build, you can be certain that they will roll with a couple specific rules. First, they will always drop with the appropriate main stat for your class (Strength for Barbarian/Crusader, Dexterity for Demon Hunter/Monk, and Intelligence for Witch Doctor/Wizard). Second, they will always have the ideal number of sockets for that item. For pants, chest, and jewelry, this means the maximum number of sockets. Since ideally you will want to use a Ramaladni's Gift on your weapon, Primal weapons will roll with no sockets.

   

 

Primal Ancients can drop from any source of Legendary item in the game, including Horadric Caches, Kadala, and Kanai’s Cube, but only after you have completed at least a level 70 Greater Rift. This requirement need only be completed once per game mode (Hardcore vs. Non-Hardcore, or Seasonal vs. Non-Seasonal), which means it will reset with every Season. However, once that requirement has been met, all characters in that game mode will benefit from it. Happy hunting!

Patch 2.5.0 is almost here! Which new feature are you looking forward to the most? What’s the first build you’re going to store in the Armory? Which Primal Ancient are you dying to get your hands on? Let us know in the comment section below, or ask questions you might have about what’s in store!

[albabe 33]

I'm curious how the Legendary Gems will work in the Armory.  Will this mean that you only need One (1) of Each Gem?  You just suit-up once, Add the Legendary Gems to the Build and put the Build in the Armory, and then move the same Legendary Gem to another Build and suit-it-up there too.

 

This should mean that we can use our Duplicate Legendary Gems in the Cube for Caldesann's Despair points.

 

 

 

 

[Starym 3,800]

1 hour ago, albabe said:

I'm curious how the Legendary Gems will work in the Armory.  Will this mean that you only need One (1) of Each Gem?  You just suit-up once, Add the Legendary Gems to the Build and put the Build in the Armory, and then move the same Legendary Gem to another Build and suit-it-up there too.

 

This should mean that we can use our Duplicate Legendary Gems in the Cube for Caldesann's Despair points.

I was wondering the same thing and the description doesn't really help. I'm assuming it'll switch out the gems and we'll only need one, but it kinda seems too good to be true.

[albabe 33]

And I'm wondering if you suit-up and add a Build, then put the gear and stuff on one of your mules... is that cool too? 

[Valhalen 1,484]

Do you automatically get crafting materials by walking over them (just like gold pickup) or do you still have to actually click them?

[Denarius 0]

Still have to click them. at least that's how it works on PTR.

[tachi1247 0]

On 3/17/2017 at 5:29 PM, albabe said:

And I'm wondering if you suit-up and add a Build, then put the gear and stuff on one of your mules... is that cool too? 

No. the items you want to equip have to be in your inventory or your stash according to the videos they've posted from the PTR. It will place the items you are taking off in the place where the items you are equipping was.

On 3/17/2017 at 1:39 PM, Starym said:

I was wondering the same thing and the description doesn't really help. I'm assuming it'll switch out the gems and we'll only need one, but it kinda seems too good to be true.

It will switch out the gems, but you will have to remove the gems from the character holding them and put them in your stash in order for another character to use them. Probably be something that you just have to get in the habit of doing before you log off each gaming session.

 

Does anyone know when this will go live? Will it be during the 7-9am maintenance outage on Tuesday 3/21?

[albabe 33]

On March 19, 2017 at 7:21 PM, tachi1247 said:

No. the items you want to equip have to be in your inventory or your stash according to the videos they've posted from the PTR. It will place the items you are taking off in the place where the items you are equipping was.

You just made me very dizzy... but I'm ADHD... makes it hard sometimes to be linear.

So, you can use one of your Characters Inventory as a Mule for the Build?  Just not Equip them?

On March 19, 2017 at 7:21 PM, tachi1247 said:

It will switch out the gems, but you will have to remove the gems from the character holding them and put them in your stash in order for another character to use them. Probably be something that you just have to get in the habit of doing before you log off each gaming session.

So just leave all your best Legendary Gems in your Stash and actually Only equip them once when you Build the Build for the "Armoire?"

On March 19, 2017 at 7:21 PM, tachi1247 said:

Does anyone know when this will go live? Will it be during the 7-9am maintenance outage on Tuesday 3/21?

Now!  It be Live as we speak!