d3 Patch 2.5.0 Now Live + Patch Notes

[Starym 3,800]

 

Class and item changes, armory, primal ancients and more.

The new primal patch is here! 2.5.0 brings all the already announced and detailed features, but also tweaks a few items and abilities.

The new primal patch is here (in the Americas anyway, coming to EU tomorrow)! 2.5.0 brings all the already announced and detailed features, but also tweaks a few items and abilities, with Crusaders' Shield Glare and Barbarians' Seismic Slam, Roland, Raekor, Zunimasa and Delsere sets, as well as Rimeheart, Strongarm Bracers, Holy Point Shot, The Barber, Manald Heal and Illusory Boots.

Blizzard (source)

Diablo III patch 2.5.0 is now live in the Americas for PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One! Check out the full PC patch notes below to learn all about the latest changes.

Important: Please note that you will not be prompted to download patch 2.5.0 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 in the Americas, you will be unable to log into Europe or Asia using Global Play after patch 2.5.0 is live until those regions have also patched.

Diablo III Patch 2.5.0 - v2.5.0.44247

GENERAL

• New Feature: Armory
  • Players may now save up to five different builds per character using the Armory
    • This new feature can be found in the town hub within each Act
  • Saving a build in the Armory will snapshot your character’s current gear, socketed gems, active and passive skills, and Kanai’s Cube powers
  • Equipping a saved armory build will automatically swap items and gear between the character and stash
     
• New Feature: Crafting Mat Storage
  • Starting with Patch 2.5.0, crafting materials picked up or obtained through salvaging will now appear in a separate storage tab, freeing up space in the shared stash
    • This tab can be accessed through the Inventory window

CLASSES

• Crusader
  • Shield Glare
    • The Divine Verdict rune has been updated to apply its secondary effect even if the target is immune to crowd control effects
• Barbarian
  • Seismic Slam
    • The Rumble rune will now consume all remaining fury to increase the rune’s damage over time component by 15% weapon damage per point of fury spent
• Bug Fixes
• Demon Hunter
  • Impale Ricochet
    • Fixed a bug where the second bounce granted by this rune would sometimes fail if enemies were packed tightly together.

ITEMS

General

• Primal Ancient Items
• Developer Philosophy
  • Primal Ancients are for players who have largely completed gearing for their build and finished their Season Journey, but want to continue playing. They’re also for non-seasonal players who have great gear and spend most of their time gaining Paragon Levels and upgrading Legendary Gems. We want to extend the excitement of seeing gear drop or spending Blood Shards at Kadala past the point of getting Ancients in every slot. Primals provide an avenue for dedicated players to complete a build, without feeling like required upgrades.
  • Legendary and Set items will now have a chance to roll as Primal Ancient
  • These items are much more rare than Ancient items and have perfect Ancient-level stats on all affixes, including the item’s Legendary Power
  • Note: Primal Ancients will only begin dropping after a character on the player’s account has reached Greater Rift 70 Solo
  • There are separate unlocks for normal and Hardcore characters, as well as Seasonal and non-Seasonal characters
  • The stats on these items will be tailored to the character class you are playing when the item first drops
  • Primal Ancient items salvage into 15 Forgotten Souls
     
• Ancient Items
  • Now salvage into 3 Forgotten Souls
     
• Legendary Items
• The following items have been adjusted
  • Rimeheart
    • Increased the chance to proc its Legendary item power on frozen targets from 10% to 20%
  • Strongarm Bracers
    • The damage bonus from this item is now applied when the knockback occurs rather than when the enemy lands
    • The damage bonus duration has been increased to 6 seconds
       
• Class Specific Items
• The following class sets received changes
  • Crusader
  • Roland's Legacy (Example: Roland's Bearing)
    • (4) Set Bonus
    • Damage bonus has been increased to 2500% (from 1250%) damage bonus on Sweep Attack and Shield Bash
  • Monk
  • Inna's Favor (Example: Inna's Temperance)
    • (6) Set Bonus
    • Damage bonus for each Mystic Ally has been increased to 125% (from 100%)
  • Witch Doctor
    • Zunimassa’s Haunt (Example: Zunimassa's Marrow)
    • (6) Set Bonus
    • Damage bonus has been increased to 2500% (from 1500%) when enemies are hit by your mana spenders for 8 seconds
  • Wizard
    • Delsere’s Magnum Opus
    • (2) Set Bonus
    • Cooldown of Slow Time is reduced by 3 seconds (from 2) when casting Arcane Orb, Energy Twister, Explosive Blast, Magic Missile, Shock Pulse, Spectral Blade and Wave of Force
    • (4) Set Bonus
    • Damage reduction increased to 60% (from 50%)
    • (6) Set Bonus
    • Enemies take 3500% increased damage (from 2500%) while inside Slow Time
    • The slow and damage bonuses persist on enemies for 5 seconds after they exit Slow Time
       
• 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
• Demon Hunter
  • Holy Point Shot
    • Impale throws two additional knives
       
• The functionality of some items has changed
• The Barber
  • This weapon is now a Ceremonial Knife instead of a Dagger, allowing it to roll the same damage as other Witch Doctor items
  • The damage bonus to the final explosion of this item’s Legendary power has also been reintroduced
  • With this change, the item’s Legendary power will also be updated in Kanai’s Cube for those who already extracted it
  • Players will need to re-equip the power in the cube for the updated version to appear
• Manald Heal
  • Wizard pets such as Hydras will now also proc the damage component of Manald Heal when attacking a target
  • The number of procs generated by channeled skills while using this item has been reduced by 25%
• Illusory Boots
  • Now allow the player to pass through enemies and the Waller affix when using Furious Charge, Whirlwind, Strafe and Tempest Rush
     
• Bug Fixes
  • The Legacy of Raekor (Example: Raekor's Heart)
    • Fixed a bug where the 6 piece bonus of this set would not buff Earthquake damage

MONSTERS

• Bug Fixes
  • Fixed an issue causing Elite enemies with the Juggernaut affix to incorrectly take normal damage from Slow Time when combined with Delsere’s Magnum Opus

ADVENTURE MODE

• Greater Rifts
  • The requirement for participating in certain difficulty levels in public games has been changed from current Paragon Level to highest solo Greater Rift clear, as follows
  • Torment I – VI: No Requirement
  • Torment VII: Solo Greater Rift 30
  • Torment VIII: Solo Greater Rift 35
  • Torment IX: Solo Greater Rift 40
  • Torment X: Solo Greater Rift 45
  • Torment XI: Solo Greater Rift 50
  • Torment XII: Solo Greater Rift 55
  • Torment XIII: Solo Greater Rift 60
  • Note: This change only applies to players on PC / Mac
  • Additionally, several quality of life changes have been made
    • The frequency of several tilesets in Greater Rifts has been adjusted
    • Caves, Keep Depths and Zoltun Kulle’s Archives will appear less often
    • Stinging Winds, Festering Woods, Pandemonium, Tristram Cathedreal, Arreat Crater and Realm of the Banished will appear more often
    • The Flooded Causeway and Westmarch locations will no longer appear on the first floor of Greater Rifts
    • The number of Spear Throwing Goatmen and Skeleton Archers that appear in Greater Rifts has been reduced in certain enemy populations
       
• Set Dungeons
  • Unhallowed Essence
    • The upper right tile for this dungeon has been replaced with one that affords more space for monster spawning as a quality of life improvement
  • Armor of Akkhan
    • The number of times Condemn must hit 10 or more enemies to complete the objective has been reduced from 12 to 10
  • Delsere’s Magnum Opus
    • The required number of enemies players must hit at once with Slow Time has been reduced from 30 to 20, and the number of times they must be hit has increased from 3 to 4
  • Uliana’s Stratagem
    • The minimum number of enemies players need to hit with a single Exploding Palm for the first Bonus Objective has been lowered from 21 to 15 and the number of times it must be performed has been changed from 3 to 4
       
• Bounties
  • Bonus Acts have been removed
  • With this change, completing five bounties in any act will now grant you a Large Horadric Chest containing the same contents as the Horadric and Bonus Caches
     
• Bug Fixes
  • Fixed an issue that caused a specific enemy population of Triune Cultists in Greater Rifts to spawn the wrong ratio of minions

QUALITY OF LIFE

• Paragon System
  • You can now spend 100 Paragon points by holding the Control key and left clicking

[Valhalen 1,484]

Awwwww yiss. I've been waiting for this! And now Leapquake will be even better!

[RoseZ12 6]

leapquake? barbs didnt got anything from this patch dont they?

[Valhalen 1,484]

52 minutes ago, RoseZ12 said:

leapquake? barbs didnt got anything from this patch dont they?

The changes to Seismic Slam: Rumble directly affects the Leapquake build, since you can dump your Fury in a single hit, much like with Ancient Spear: Boulder Toss.

[Warden 8]

6 hours ago, Valhalen said:

The changes to Seismic Slam: Rumble directly affects the Leapquake build, since you can dump your Fury in a single hit, much like with Ancient Spear: Boulder Toss.

Will that be better than Ancient Spear: Boulder Toss?  Has anybody tried it?

Also, if you use Fury of the Vanished Peak (in the cube), does the "Reduces the Fury cost of Seismic Slam by 40–50%" property have any effect?  Seems like it should behave as though you have 80% to 100% more fury, so when it all gets drained, your damage is proportionately higher.

[Valhalen 1,484]

13 hours ago, Warden said:

Will that be better than Ancient Spear: Boulder Toss?  Has anybody tried it?

Also, if you use Fury of the Vanished Peak (in the cube), does the "Reduces the Fury cost of Seismic Slam by 40–50%" property have any effect?  Seems like it should behave as though you have 80% to 100% more fury, so when it all gets drained, your damage is proportionately higher.

As someone who has always been using the Leapquake build since the dawn of time, I can assure that in this patch using Seismic Slam is better than Boulder Toss. In the previous patches Boulder Toss was better, though.

Considering that with Seismic Slam you can use the Girdle of Giants, which is a pretty good increase in DPS. And Seismic Slam covers a very decent range and area of effect.

Using Fury of the Vanished Peak is useless, in my opinion, as you'll have to sacrifice your weapon slot in the cube, where you could use a much more valuable The Furnace instead. Also, I don't think it has any effect with the Rumble rune, since you will be dumping all Fury in one shot.

Edited March 23, 2017 by Valhalen

[Yridaa 490]

On 3/23/2017 at 1:35 AM, Valhalen said:

Also, I don't think it has any effect with the Rumble rune, since you will be dumping all Fury in one shot.

And deal twice the damage that way.

[Warden 8]

On 3/22/2017 at 7:35 PM, Valhalen said:

As someone who has always been using the Leapquake build since the dawn of time, I can assure that in this patch using Seismic Slam is better than Boulder Toss. In the previous patches Boulder Toss was better, though.

Considering that with Seismic Slam you can use the Girdle of Giants, which is a pretty good increase in DPS. And Seismic Slam covers a very decent range and area of effect.

Using Fury of the Vanished Peak is useless, in my opinion, as you'll have to sacrifice your weapon slot in the cube, where you could use a much more valuable The Furnace instead. Also, I don't think it has any effect with the Rumble rune, since you will be dumping all Fury in one shot.

I forgot all about Girdle of Giants--that certainly changes things.  I think the AOE would be a nice improvement over Boulder Toss's almost pinpoint damage.

[Warden 8]

On 3/24/2017 at 2:58 AM, Yridaa said:

And deal twice the damage that way.

That's the crux of my question: does fury cost reduction increase your damage when using runes that dump all available fury?  If so, The Furnace might still be better when pushing GRs where you need elite damage, but Fury of the Vanished Peak could be better when you need the AOE.

[Valhalen 1,484]

5 hours ago, Warden said:

That's the crux of my question: does fury cost reduction increase your damage when using runes that dump all available fury?  If so, The Furnace might still be better when pushing GRs where you need elite damage, but Fury of the Vanished Peak could be better when you need the AOE.

I'll have to test out to see, but I think it doesn't make any difference since the Runes just dump all the Fury, regardless of cost reduction.

[Yridaa 490]

17 hours ago, Warden said:

That's the crux of my question: does fury cost reduction increase your damage when using runes that dump all available fury?  If so, The Furnace might still be better when pushing GRs where you need elite damage, but Fury of the Vanished Peak could be better when you need the AOE.

Yes it does work, but it isn't enough to compete with The Furnace. You're either looking at "2x damage for a rune" or "x1.5 damage for all skills."

 

While Seismic Slam makes up for a large portion of damage, it isn't enough to make FotVP competitive with The Furnace. Unless, perhaps, you want to kill a lot of white mobs and skip elites. If they'd buff Seismic Slam a bit more however (Say season 11 or 12) I can definitely see FotVP becoming more favorable in later seasons compared to The Furnace. For now, not so much.

[Warden 8]

11 hours ago, Yridaa said:

Yes it does work, but it isn't enough to compete with The Furnace. You're either looking at "2x damage for a rune" or "x1.5 damage for all skills."

While Seismic Slam makes up for a large portion of damage, it isn't enough to make FotVP competitive with The Furnace. Unless, perhaps, you want to kill a lot of white mobs and skip elites. If they'd buff Seismic Slam a bit more however (Say season 11 or 12) I can definitely see FotVP becoming more favorable in later seasons compared to The Furnace. For now, not so much.

Roger that.  Thanks!