d3 Patch 2.7.2 Preview: Patch Notes & New Season Theme

[Staff 1,488]

 

The two-week testing period for Patch 2.7.2 begins November 4, and here are the PTR notes with more details about the new Season 25 theme (Soul Shards), item changes, and more.

Season 25 Theme Details

Season 25 adds a new type of socketable item called Soul Shards. Players can obtain 7 unique Soul Shards, based on the Lord of Hell. Soul Shards provide you with new powers that you can bestow upon your enemies in the Sanctuary.

One of 3 Prime Evil Soul Shards can be equipped into Helms, and one of 4 Lesser Evil Soul Shards can be equipped into Weapons.

Soul Shards can be upgraded 3 times using a new season-only consumable, the Hellforge Ember.

Soul Shards drop primarily from bosses, but they have a chance to drop anywhere in the world along with Hellforge Embers.

(Source)

Our two-week PTR testing period for the 2.7.2 update begins November 4 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 Soul Shard system and item balance changes; Patch 2.7.2 PTR will be arriving soon.

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Table of Contents

• PTR Focus Details
  • PTR Tips
• Patch Notes
  • Seasons
  • Items
• 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.

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PTR Focus & Details

We’ll be conducting the Patch 2.7.2 PTR starting Thursday, November 4. During this time there may be periodic maintenances, outages, hotfixes, or minor patches.

• There will be three PTR-unique buffs active to help you on your journey: increased Legendary drop rate, increased experience gains, 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!
• Class and Balance Changes: To ensure that the most significant class changes receive an ample amount of attention, we'd love for you to focus testing and feedback on the set changes to the Witch Doctor, Barbarian, Necromancer, Wizard and Demon Hunter.
• New Season Theme Testing: We're looking to gather feedback on the seasonal theme content featuring Soul Shards.

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 2.7.2.

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PATCH 2.7.2

Table of Contents:

• Seasons
• Items
• Bug Fixes

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Seasons

New Season Theme: Season 25 introduces a new type of socketable item called Soul Shards. Nephalem can find 7 unique Soul Shards, based on the Lords of Hell, which give players demonic new powers. One of 3 Prime Evil Soul Shards can be equipped into Helms and one of 4 Lesser Evil Soul Shards can be equipped into Weapons. Each Soul Shard can be upgraded three times using a new seasonal-exclusive consumable, the Hellforge Ember.

Soul Shards and Hellforge Embers can drop from anywhere in Sanctuary, but Soul Shards have a higher chance to drop from Bosses. Soul Shards cannot be traded, but can be salvaged or utilized in Caldesann’s Despair. You may only equip one Prime Evil Soul Shard and one Lesser Evil Soul Shard at a time. Lastly, Soul Shards and Hellforge Embers only drop in Seasonal play, and will not transfer to your non-seasonal character when the season ends.

Developer's Note: With the upcoming 25th Anniversary of the Diablo Franchise, we wanted players to delve into the darker side of the Nephalem's past. In Season 25, players can embrace evil by infusing themselves with the essences of the Lords of Hell. Players will embark on their Season Journey to discover and upgrade demonic Soul Shards based on the seven Lords of Hell. By embodying a Prime and Lesser Evil, players will inflict new forms of pain and suffering on the demons of Sanctuary. We can't wait for players to get their hands on Soul Shards to start unlocking their true power.

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Items

Item Changes

• Remorseless: While both Wrath of the Berserker and Call of the Ancients are active, Hammer of the Ancients deals 600-800% increased damage.

Developer's Note: We wanted to buff the Barbarian's Hammer of the Ancients playstyle without putting the power into a specific set.

• Shukrani's Triumph: Spirit Walk lasts until you attack 3 times or until an elite enemy is within 20 yards of you. Attacks while in the spirit realm deal 75-100% increased damage.
• Lakumba's Ornament: Reduce all damage taken by 60% if your Soul Harvest stack is at least (1-3), and an additional 2% for each stack of Soul Harvest.
• Spider Queen's Grasp: Corpse Spiders deals an additional 600-800% damage and releases a web on impact that Slows enemies by 80%.
• Brood of Araneae: Corpse Spiders deals an additional 75-100% damage, and each spider bite causes the target to take an additional 1% damage from Corpse Spiders for 5 seconds.
• Spirit of Arachyr (2-piece bonus): Corpse Spiders now spawns with health and attacks twice as fast.
• Spirit of Arachyr (4-piece bonus): Summon a permanent Spider Queen who leaves behind webs that lasts for 15 seconds and Slows enemies. You take 75% reduced damage while in the web. The Spider Queen is commanded to move to where you cast your Corpse Spiders.

Developer's Note: We've reworked Witch Doctor's Spirit of Arachyr set, as well as several legendary Witch Doctor items. With these changes, we hope to infuse Spirit of Arachyr with more flavor and gameplay, as well as give Witch Doctors a much needed power increase.

• Marauder's Encasement (4-piece bonus): Sentries deal 400% increased damage and cast Elemental Arrow, Chakram, Impale, Multishot, and Cluster Arrow when you do, as well as automatically cast your equipped Hatred spenders.
• Marauder's Encasement (6-piece bonus): Your primary skills, Elemental Arrow, Chakram, Impale, Multishot, Cluster Arrow, Companions, Vengeance, and Sentries deal 12000% increased damage for every active Sentry.
• The Shadow's Mantle (6-piece bonus): Impale deals an additional 75000% weapon damage to the first enemy hit, and 25000% to subsequent enemies.

Developer's Note: We adjusted the Demon Hunter Embodiment of the Marauder set to give it some of its legacy functionality and shifted power back to the Sentries. Additionally, we buffed The Shadow's Mantle set to make it more effective against multiple targets.

• Bones of Rathma (6-piece bonus): Each permanent active minion increases the damage of Army of the Dead by 1750%, up to 31,500%.

Developer's Note: The Necromancer's Bones Rathma set redesign has not been as strong as we had initially hoped, so we've increased its power.

• Firebird's Finery (2-piece bonus): Disintegrate Ignites enemies, causing them to take 1500% weapon damage per second until they die. When you die, a meteor falls from the sky and revives you. This effect has a 60-second cooldown.
• Firebird's Finery (6-piece bonus): You gain 2500% increased damage while Ignite is applied to a target. Hitting an Ignited enemy with a non-channeling fire spell deals Ignite damage multiplied by Combustion stacks.

Developer's Note: The Wizard's Firebird's Finery was reborn in patch 2.7.0 and has been one of the strongest builds in the game for all activities since. It's time to reduce the power of Firebird's Finery to bring it more in line with other classes and builds.

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Bug Fixes

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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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As this is a test server, please anticipate uneven game performance, and note that restarts and downtime may occur without warning. Thank you, and we look forward to your feedback!

[Draketh 86]

Amazing theme, can't wait to see what these Soul Shards can do! 😈

[zigrifid 133]

i guess wow chains of domination dev team moved to D3 for this season 😛

[Bubble181 14]

The Soul Shards, we'll have to wait and see, but it sounds like it could be cool - very similar to the current Ethereal theme but cool.

The WD item reworks, Lakumba's and Shukrani's will be very useful (if Shukrani's will combo with the Chicken build it would make for insane speed builds). Arachyr's set, though.....Oof. On the one hand, I like the more thematic play. On the other hand, having to stay in the web will be immensely slow. Depending on how it plays, it'll either end up being "effectively always" anyway, or it'll mean this build has to continuously lag behind a spider. 
The Corpse Spiders "spawn with health" - does this mean they'll count as summons/pets? Presumably it means they'll tank for you, but does it also mean, say, Tasker & Theo will apply? Or Enforcer? Mask of Jeram? This COULD be great, or it could be completely empty. Still, even with the two additional items for damage increases, I doubt Corpse Spiders will be able to keep up. Allowing all summons items to affect them too could be a game changer. 

Anyway, I sincerely hope this'll allow a non-Ring of Emptiness-centric build to come into being...Though build creators will probably still shoehorn it in.

[Trest 61]

Soul Shards sounds potentially quite cool.

Any word yet on an end date for the current season?

[Bubble181 14]

51 minutes ago, Trest said:

Soul Shards sounds potentially quite cool.

Any word yet on an end date for the current season?

It's usually announced two weeks in advance, and after PTR testing, which lasts one or two weeks depending on how much they want to tweak....So three or four weeks probably - my guess is three.