d3 Diablo 3 Patch 2.7.3 PTR Notes & Season 26 Preview

[Staff 1,488]

The two-week PTR testing period for Patch 2.7.3 begins March 10. Check out the official preview to learn more about the new Echoing Nightmare seasonal theme, balance updates, Greater Rift changes, and more!

Patch 2.7.3 Highlights

• The latest Diablo 3 update will be available for testing starting March 10 for 2 weeks.
• Season 26 introduces Echoing Nightmare, a new optional rewarding end-game challenge where players fight within the memories of the Nephalem who fell in a Great Rift. Today's Nephalem must stand their ground till they are inevitably overwhelmed or defeated. Players must collect Petrified Scream from defeated Greater Rift Guardians to gain entry to Echoing Nightmare. Transmuting a Petrified Scream in Kanai's Cube summons a portal that you can enter to face the horrors of the Nephalem's past.
• Echoing Nightmare is the first seasonal theme that introduces a new activity to the game.
• Blizzard describes Echoing Nightmare as an "intense, densely packed, increasingly challenging event that stretches your ability to stay in the fight as long as possible."
• Beginning with the 2.7.3 update, Greater Rifts have a chance to roll as Orek's Dream. The dreamlike rifts have a curated list of maps and monster compositions. 
• 3 maps have been added and 2 removed from the Greater Rift pool.
• Players can talk to Orek to close an active Greater Rift in single-player mode.
• Multiple balance updates and item changes were outlined in 2.7.3. Check out the official patch notes below for more information.

(Source)

Our two-week PTR testing period for the 2.7.3 update begins March 10 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 new Echoing Nightmare seasonal theme, Balance updates, and Greater Rift changes; Patch 2.7.3 PTR will be arriving soon.

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Table of Contents

• PTR Focus & Details
• PTR Testing Tips
• Patch Notes
  1. Seasons
  2. Greater Rift Updates
  3. PTR Updates
  4. Item Changes
• 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 2.7.3 PTR starting Thursday, March 10. During this time there may be periodic maintenances, outages, hotfixes, or minor patches.

• There will be PTR-unique buffs active to help you on your journey: 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! Read down below to learn more on the new vendor updates that have been implemented to assist in the PTR experience starting with PTR 2.7.3.
• 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 Barbarian, Crusader, and Monk.
• New Season Theme Testing: We're looking to gather feedback on the seasonal content around Echoing Nightmare.

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.
• 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 2.7.3.

Table of Contents:

1. Seasons
2. Greater Rift Updates
3. PTR Updates
4. Item Changes

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1. Seasons

New Season Theme: Season 26 introduces the Echoing Nightmare, an optional and rewarding end-game challenge where players fight within the memories of Nephalem who fell in a Greater Rift. Today’s Nephalem must stand their ground until they are inevitably overwhelmed or defeated. Players must collect a Petrified Scream from defeated Greater Rift Guardians to gain entry to the Echoing Nightmare. Transmuting a Petrified Scream in Kanai's Cube summons a portal that players can enter to face the horrors of the Nephalem's past.

Season Theme Details:

• Petrified Screams and the Echoing Nightmare can only be accessed with seasonal characters.
• Only one player is required to transmute a Petrified Scream to open an Echoing Nightmare in a multiplayer game.
• Similar to a boss encounter, all players in a multiplayer game must accept a prompt to enter.
• While within an Echoing Nightmare, the difficulty scales as players progress in the encounter. Players can progress faster by defeating monsters quickly.
• Players receive the following rewards upon completing an Echoing Nightmare: EXP, Legendary Items, Blood Shards, Gems, and a new Legendary Gem, Whisper of Atonement.
• The Whisper of Atonement is a Legendary Gem used exclusively for Augmenting Ancient Legendary items. It drops pre-ranked based upon player's performance in the Echoing Nightmare.

Developer's Note: This is our first Seasonal Theme that introduces a new activity to the game. In the Echoing Nightmare, players will experience an intense, densely packed, increasingly challenging event that stretches their ability to stay in the fight as long as possible. We found inspiration in Orek's warning, "Many nephalem have stood where you are now, but few succeeded in overcoming the trials." The Echoing Nightmare explores what happened to those Nephalem who did not succeed.

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2. Greater Rift Updates

Orek's Dream: Greater Rifts have a small chance to roll as Orek's Dream. These dreamlike rifts have a curated list of maps and monster compositions.

• 3 maps have been added and 2 maps have been removed from the Greater Rift pool.
  • Added: Fields of Misery, Desolate Sands and Briarthorn Cemetery
  • Removed: Sewers of Caldeum, and Hidden Aqueducts
• The probability of Greater Rift maps has been adjusted.
• The probability of monster groups has been adjusted.
• The following monsters have been adjusted to grant more progression and EXP within Greater Rifts.
  • Blazing Guardians
  • Smoldering Guardians
  • Frost Guardian
  • Noxious Guardian
  • Shock Guardian
  • Blood Clan Spearman
  • Dark Moon Clan Impaler
  • Moon Clan Impaler
  • Blood Clan Impaler
  • Ice Clan Impaler
  • Hell Witch
  • Vile Temptress
• Players can speak to Orek to close an active Greater Rift. This option is only available when in a single player game.

Developer's Note: We wanted to improve the Greater Rift experience through quality of life updates, balance changes and addressing community feedback. We reviewed all of the maps and monsters that appear in Greater Rifts and reworked the probabilities overall to make sure players spend more time with the content they enjoy. Less spaghetti and more chickens.

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3. PTR Updates

To improve the PTR testing experience, changes have been made to the bags sold by Djank Mi'em. Starting with PTR 2.7.3, we have removed the increased Legendary drop rate buff to allow for more precise drop rate testing. Class set bags are now consolidated into a single bag, which drops items based on the class that opens the bag. The changes are listed below.

PTR Weapons Pack

• Added: In-geom
• Added: The Furname

PTR Armament Pack

• Added: Andariel's Visage
• Added: Broken Crown
• Added: Cindercoat
• Added: Depth Diggers
• Added: Frostburn
• Added: Goldwrap
• Added: Ice Climbers
• Added: Lacuni Prowlers
• Added: Magefist
• Added: Tasker and Theo
• Added: Warzechian Armguards

PTR Jewelry Bag

• Added: Ess of Johan
• Added: Puzzle Ring
• Added: Rechel's Ring of Larceny
• Added: Rondal's Locket

PTR Bag of Fortune

• Added: 1 billion Gold
• Added: 3 of all Flawless Royal Gems
• Added: 3 of all Imperial Gems
• Added: 3 of all Hellfire Materials
• Added: 5 Greater Rift Keystone
• Patch 2.7.3 Items

New: PTR Bag of Recipes:

• Gives all Blacksmith and Jeweler Recipes

New: PTR Bag of Legendary Gems

• Gives all Legendary Gems at Rank 25
• Gives Legacy of Dreams at Rank 99
• Gives 13 Whisper of Atonement at Rank 100

New: PTR Bag of Followers

• Smoking Thurible
• Hand of the Prophet
• Vadim's Surge
• Skeleton Key
• Slipka's Letter Opener
• Ribald Etchings
• Relic of Akarat
• Enchanting Favor
• HillenBrand's Training Sword
• Broken Crown
• Gladiator Gauntlets
• Spaulders of Zakara
• Rakoff's Glass of Life
• Krede's Flame
• Homing Pads
• Nemesis Bracers
• Gloves of Worship
• The Flavor of Time
• Avarice Band
• Dovu Energy Trap
• Custerian Wristguards
• Goldskin
• Cord of the Sherma
• Ring of Royal Grandeur
• Oculus Ring
• Unity
• Leoric's Crown
• Blind Faith
• Ice Climbers
• Tal Rasha's Relentless Pursuit
• Thunderfury, Blesssed Blade of the Windseeker
• Pig Sticker
• Cluckeye

Developer's Note: We wanted to make it easier for players to jump in and try out new content.

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4. Item Changes

Barbarian

• Legacy of Raekor (4-piece Bonus): Furious Charge gains the effect of every rune and deals 1000% increased damage. For every 1% Life you are missing, the damage of your Ancient Spear is increased by 2%.
• Legacy of Raekor (6-piece Bonus): Hitting enemies with Furious Charge increases the damage of your next Ancient Spear by 5500% and causes it to release multiple spears from its target. This effect stacks and is consumed from each released spear. This can only consume a maximum of 5 stacks at a time.
• Arreat's Law: Weapon Throw and Ancient Spear deal 150-200% increased damage.
  • Weapon Throw generates up to 25 additional Fury based on the distance of the enemy hit.
  • Ancient Spear refunds up to 25 Fury based on the distance of the enemy hit.
• The Three Hundredth Spear: Increase the damage of Weapon Throw and Ancient Spear by 150-200%.
• Skullar's Salvation: Increase the damage of Ancient Spear by 150-200%. If your Ancient Spear - Boulder Toss hits 5 or fewer enemies, the damage is increased by 100%.

Developer's Note: We reworked Raekor’s Legacy to give the set its own identity. It felt natural to the team to infuse the charging fantasy of Raekor’s Legacy with the Barbarian’s ranged skills.

Crusader

• Thorns of the Invoker: The attack speed of Punish and Slash are increased by 100% and deal 67,500% of your Thorns damage.
• Norvald's Fervor: Gain 200% increased damage while using Steed Charge and for 5 seconds after it ends.

Developer's Note: Norvald's Fervor is overperforming across multiple sets. We want to bring its power down, but we are Increasing the utility of Thorns of the Invoker to compensate.

Monk

• Bindings of the Lesser Gods: Enemies hit by your Cyclone Strike take 150%-200% more damage from your Mystic Ally for 5 seconds.

Developer's Note: We're happy with the gameplay of Inna's Mantra Monks, but the Fire build is overperforming, so we removed the Fire Ally bonus from the Bindings of the Lesser Gods.

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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]

Glad to see some love for Greater Rifts! 😁

[Sabrast 7]

13 hours ago, Staff said:

PTR Bag of Fortune

• Added: 1 billion Gold
• Added: 3 of all Flawless Royal Gems
• Added: 3 of all Imperial Gems
• Added: 3 of all Hellfire Materials
• Added: 5 Greater Rift Keystone
• Patch 2.7.3 Items

so, we no longer get crafting materials, right? 

[leafs 2]

That's PTR. Good luck getting though life with that level of aptitude. If they don't just copy Lost Ark we're stuck with crap and players happy to lap it up. 

 

[Todd 7]

Great to hear. Any content update is always welcome!