d3 Patch 2.6.9 PTR Patch Notes

[Stan 5,240]

A new Diablo 3 patch will be available for playtesting starting May 21. Check out the official patch notes for details.

UPDATE: The patch has been delayed and we should see it hit PTR on May 28.

Patch Highlights

• A new Seasonal buff will make your character channel an elemental power which unleashes into the environment for a limited time every 2 minutes, making meteors rain from skies around you. Your character can also breathe lightning, release twisters of pure energy, and more.
• The patch also comes with brand new sets for Demon Hunters and Necromancers, skill changes for Necromancers, and various bug fixes.
  • The Necromancer set revolves around Simulacrums and Bone Spear.
  • The Demon Hunter (Gears of Dreadlands) set utilizes Momentum stacks and Strafe.
• You can earn a new Portrait Frame and Pet in Season 21.

More details are available in the patch notes below.

(Source)

Wait, Nephalem. Do you sense that? Though the air remains tainted with a demonic brimstone stench, the world around you crackles with chaotic elemental energy. You have been deemed worthy. The primal forces of Sanctuary manifest to aid you in the fight against the swelling darkness. Channel untethered bouts of flame, forked lightning, slicing wind, and biting snow against the minions of the Burning Hells during the Trials of Tempests!

Our two-week PTR testing period for the 2.6.9 update begins May 21 and we're asking for your help to quell the tides of surging demons. Take a look at the preliminary patch notes below and start theorycrafting how you'll make the most of the brand-new season buff, two new class sets, and tons of Legendary item changes; Patch 2.6.9 will be arriving soon!

Table of Contents

• PTR Focus & Details
  • PTR Tips
• Patch Notes
  • Seasons
  • Items
  • Skills
  • Bug Fixes
• How to Participate in PTR
• PTR Character Copy

Please note that this is a preview for PTR content, which is subject to change.

PTR Focus & Details

We’ll be conducting the Patch 2.6.9 PTR over the course of two weeks, starting Thursday, May 21. During this time there may be periodic maintenances, outages, hotfixes, or minor patches.

There will be two PTR-unique buffs active to help you on your journey: increased Legendary drop rate and double Blood Shard drops. You can also buy new gear for testing from the special PTR vendor, Djank Mi'em, who will exchange Blood Shards for class-specific bags full of Legendary items that we'd love for you to test!

To ensure that the most significant changes receive an ample amount of attention, we'd love for you to focus testing and feedback on the new Demon Hunter and Necromancer sets, Necromancer Skill changes, and the Legendary item changes.

So that we can efficiently review your posts, feedback should be provided in the PTR Feedback forum while bug reports should be provided in the PTR Bug Report forum. 

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PTR Testing Tips

As with our previous PTRs, this testing period is short, so it's best to hit the ground running. Whether you’re a PTR veteran or newcomer, we thought we’d pass along a few tips to get you started.

• Because of the limited duration of this PTR, we ask that participants pick a particular portion of this update to focus on testing.
  • For example, if you’re primarily a Wizard player, consider what changes impact the Wizard specifically. What you like best, what you think may still need adjustment, and what you’d want to see in the future (even if that may be beyond the scope of this patch) are all good questions to ask yourself.
• Prior to the start of PTR, consider stocking up on items like Puzzle Rings and Bovine Bardiches. Having these available after you import your character can make any necessary PTR farming much faster!
• Try to break things! Just tell us when you do so we can make sure that the patch launch is as smooth as possible.
• When providing feedback, focus less on a solution and more on your experience. How did the changes make you feel? Was there something “off” that you noticed? Did something seem wrong or insufficient? Suggestions are always welcome but identifying the issues themselves is most important.

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Patch Notes

Below you will find the patch notes for the upcoming update for Diablo III, Patch 2.6.9.

PATCH 2.6.9

Table of Contents:

• Seasons
• Items
• Monsters
• Bug Fixes

Note: All changes apply to all versions of Diablo III, including PS4, Xbox One, Switch, and PC unless otherwise indicated. Please note that PTR is only available for PC and Mac users.

Seasons

• The elements have deemed you worthy. With you as their champion, the burning hells will face the Trials of Tempests!
  • Your character will occasionally (every 2 minutes) channel an elemental power which unleashes into the environment for a limited time:
    • Meteors rain from the skies around you.
    • Breathe lightning.
    • A wall of flame engulfs everything.
    • Release twisters of pure energy.
    • Crush your foes under the weight of rolling snowballs.
• Two unique new rewards, a portrait frame and a pet, will be granted to players who complete the Season 21 Journey.

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Items

Demon Hunter

• New Demon Hunter Set: Gears of Dreadlands
  • 2-Piece Bonus
    • Gain a Momentum stack when attacking with a Primary skill. Each Momentum stack lasts 2 seconds at a maximum duration of 10 seconds. Your Primary skills deal 10% more damage per stack of Momentum.
  • 4-Piece Bonus
    • Casting Strafe against enemies will automatically shoot your last used primary skill, and also give 60% damage reduction while strafing and for 5 seconds after. While casting Strafe, you move faster per stack of Momentum.
  • 6-Piece Bonus
    • Your primary skills deal 10000% more damage
• Leonine Bow of Hashir
  • Bolas have a 30% 100% chance on explosion to pull in all enemies within 24 yards, and also deal 100-150% increased damage.
• Emimei's Duffel
  • Bolas now explode instantly and deal 150-175% increased damage.
• The Ninth Cirri Satchel
  • Hungering Arrow has 20-25% is guaranteed to pierce and also deals 450-600% increased damage.
• Odyssey's End
  • Enemies snared by your Entangling Shots take 20-25% 100-150% increased damage from all sources.
• Hunter's Wrath
  • Your primary skills attack 30% faster and deal 45-60% 150-200% increased damage.
• Holy Point Shot
  • Impale throws 2 additional knives and deals 75-100% increased damage.

Necromancer

• New Necromancer Set: Masquerade of Burning Carnival
  • 2-Piece Bonus
    • Your Simulacrums no longer take damage, gains all runes, and its cooldown is refreshed when you die.
  • 4-Piece Bonus
    • While you have a Simulacrum, damage is reduced by 50%. Damage you take is split with your Simulacrums as well.
  • 6-Piece Bonus
    • Your Bone Spear deals 10,000% increased damage. Simulacrums gain triple this bonus.
• Grasps of Essence
  • When an exploded corpse damages at least one enemy, Your Corpse Explosion deals 75-100% 150-200% increased damage for 6 seconds, stacking up to 5 times.
• Haunted Visions
  • Simulacrum now drains 5% 1% of your maximum life every second and lasts twice as long forever. They can now duplicate Grim Scythe instead of Skeletal Mage.
• Razeth's Volition
  • Skeletal Mage gains the effect of the Gift of Death and Singularity runes. You gain 35-60% damage reduction if your Essence is not full.
• Jesseth Arms
  • 2-Piece Set Bonus: While your skeletons are commanded to attack a target, you deal 400% increased damage.
• Grace of Inarius
  • 4-Piece Set Bonus: Bone Armor grants an additional 2% 3% damage reduction per enemy hit.
• Pestilence Master's Shroud
  • 6-Piece Set Bonus: Each corpse you consume grants you an Empowered Bone Spear charge that increases the damage of your next Bone Spear by 3300%. In addition, Corpse Lance and Corpse Explosion damage is increased by 1650% 3300%.

Crusader

• Shield of Fury
  • This effect may stack up to 20 10 times.

General

• Stone of Jordan
  • Added power: Each of your elemental's damage bonus is equal to your highest static elemental bonus to skill.
• Reaper's Wraps
  • Added a 2-second internal cooldown to the Health globe effect.
• Mantle of Channeling
  • Now works with the Necromancer's Siphon Blood.
• Convention of Elements

  • Added "non-static" to the wording of the legendary power's description. The functionality is unchanged

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Skill Changes

• Necromancer

  • Final Service

    • No longer consumes pets.

  • Bone Prison
    • Simulacrums now benefit from this passive skill.
  • Serration
    • Simulacrums now benefit from this passive skill.
  • Corpse Explosion
    • Damage increased from 350% to 1050%.
• Witch Doctor
  • Spirit Barrage
    • The Spectres from the Phantasm rune no longer benefit from pet bonuses.

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Bug Fixes

• General
  • Fixed a rare issue where players could enter a locked party and become unable to enter games or change game settings
• Necromancer
  • Fixed an issue where Skeletal Mages were not attacking certain creatures

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How to Participate

To participate in the public test, you must have a Diablo III game license attached to a Battle.net account in good standing (i.e. one that hasn't been suspended or banned). In addition, you will also need to download and install the Blizzard Battle.net desktop app if you have not already done so.

Step 1: Restart the Battle.net desktop app.

Step 2: Navigate to the Diablo III tab on the left-hand menu.

Step 3: On the Diablo III screen, there is a drop-down menu right above the "Play" button (note that this may say "Install" if you do not have Diablo III currently installed). Select "PTR: Diablo III" from this drop-down menu before proceeding.

Step 4: Click Install to begin the installation process.

Your PTR account will be created automatically if you do not already have one. The PTR is available in all supported languages, and accounts from all regions are eligible to participate. For additional assistance with installing and launching the PTR, click here.

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PTR Character Copy

The option to copy your existing Diablo III characters from your live account to the PTR will be available and can be done directly through the PTR client. However, only one region per account can be copied at a time. So, if you choose to copy characters from your account in a different region, any previously copied PTR characters will be lost.

Step 1: Log into the live game and then log out.

Step 2: Log into PTR client and create a level 1 character. After you're done, return to the main character screen.

Step 3: Click on the "PTR Copy" button located in the upper right-hand corner. (The PTR Copy button will not appear in-game until you have created a new level 1 character.)

Step 4: Select your region.

Step 5: Click "Copy." This will copy all characters on your account from the selected region.

Step 6: You will be disconnected from the PTR client.

Step 7: Log back in. Your copied characters will be available for play.

Please note that you can only copy characters from one gameplay region at a time. If you choose to copy characters from a different region, any previously copied PTR characters will be lost. In addition, you can only copy characters over to your PTR account once every 24 hours. Attempting to copy characters before this cooldown is up will result in an error.

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Patch 2.6.9 comes with a new Seasonal power, new sets for Demon Hunters, Necromancers, and more.

[darkgreenwax 412]

I like the idea of both those sets.

The Demon Hunter set is pretty much "we created a way for you to play Valla from Heroes of the Storm.......... who is based off the Demon Hunter from Diablo 3." Kind of a funny circle of inspiration ?

I hope it's viable!

[tyraelpl 4]

Suddenly NOW they feel that shield of fury is op and needs to be nerfed by half? WTH? That feels stupid... and wrong.

[Skyewalker 20]

I do like this. DH getting a very low maintenance farm-set, with the possibility of pushing. Doing damage with primaries has always been an ideal of players and blizzard, so incorporating this in the new set is cool. Bola's and Ensnaring strike have been favorites for a long time. Strafe is the perfect "whirlwind/tempest rush" skill for DH's, and really nice to play if you do not have to do stupid things with it (like RoV Natalya's). Shooting primaries while strafing at turbo speed is awesome.

Couple points:

- too bad that the dmg reduction for the DH-set is tied to the 6-piece bonus.

- I love that they added  another multiplier for Impale attached to Holy Point Shot (which deserved a multiplier), since the Single Target oriented BK-impale build fell behind massively. 

- I really appreciate the nerf to the Crusader shield. Blizzard does not nerf during season, but this build has been outperforming way too much. Dominating the entire BK-role in GR pushing.

[adelphiaUK 0]

Is this live yet? I have been trying for the last 3 days to get on but all I get is:

 A new patch for Diablo III is available. The game will now
close and apply the patch automatically. You will be able to
    continue playing after the patch has been applied.

Any ideas? Have others been getting this too?