Diablo III Patch 1.0.4 Preview

Written by: Carina Vossos (Twitter @Rinaxas - Google+) | August 13, 2012 4:10 pm

28 Comments

Over the weekend we got a preview of the changes coming to Diablo III in 1.0.4 in the form of a developer blog post. Some long overdue changes are coming, and they can only be good things. While there are some things that we’ll have to wait until 1.1 for, the highlights of this coming patch include:

No more elite packs healing.
Shrinking the difficulty gap between normal monsters and elites by upping the HP of normal monsters and upping their item drop rate by a factor of four, but lowering the HP of elite mobs.
Magic and Gold Find will no longer average out between players in groups.
NO MORE INVULNERABLE MINIONS
Adjusting Fire Chains and Shielding to be less horrible.
Removed elite enrage timers.
Reducing Inferno repair costs by 25%
Upping the quality of ilevel 61 and 62 items. They can now roll damage stats similar to top end ilevel 63 weapons and gear.
Creating a new set of weapon affixes to close the trade off gap when using 2 handed weapons instead of dual wielding.

There will be more blog posts talking about legendaries and the class buffs that are coming, but it looks like this is a good start. What do you guys think of the changes? If you aren’t playing anymore do you think that this might bring you back? Let us know in the comments below.

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http://www.facebook.com/davidallmighty David Cohen

The biggest issue is that loot is so rare, and the cost is so high, that you have to farm for days on end to get good gear. Or just get real lucky. Most of my friends don’t play at all anymore, and a few of us play now and then. The fact that I can’t get upgrades without putting in massive hours and then getting lucky I win an auction just makes for horrible gameplay. Imagine in an MMO you killed a boss and all he dropped was gear that nobody needed, but could be sold and then you had a vendor who sold you gear, or even the AH had gear. That is Diablo in a nut shell. Farm gold, buy off the AH. Farming gold and gear and hitting up the AH now and then would have been 100 times more fun. But for a lot of people these changes might be too little too late.
- Old Ben
  
  > you have to farm for days on end to get
  > good gear. Or just get real lucky.
  
  Or just stop caring and play the game for fun (or stop playing it if it’s not fun).
  
  But I guess that’s not a viable post-WoW mentality.
  
  > The fact that I can’t get upgrades [...] just makes for horrible gameplay
  
  The “gameplay” is the part where you’re actually playing, not the millisecond when the loot drops. It comes from “playing” and “game”, and it used to be the reason why people actually played games. Never mind, I don’t think I can explain…
  - http://www.facebook.com/fimbulvetrr Dovah Kiin
    
    Finally, an intelligent response.
  - ArsenicSundae
    
    Can’t explain? I’ll give it a go…
    
    The only “used to be” that’s relevant is the gameplay experience from D2. In that game, the gating between difficulty levels wasn’t anywhere near as draconian as it is with D3. D3 was designed to *prevent your progress* by making gear drops so poor that people would feel compelled to seek out gear from the RMAH, just to stave off the monotony of endlessly repeating the same content. It “used to be” optional, to stick around and farm content, not a requirement.
    
    Also, with D2, if you were able to complete a difficulty level, you were ready for the next one. The transition from one to the other was smooth. Quite the opposite in D3.
    
    Lastly, you never NEEDED to farm in order to complete any difficulty level except for the last one. A normal once through would net you everything you absolutely required to progress, but players had the option to prolong their stay in each difficulty if they chose to. The difference there is that the PLAYER chose to move on when they no longer wished to see the same content any longer, not the loot lottery. The only options they have now is farm until their eyes bleed or open their wallets. It’s astounding that this kind of scheme is being defended by gamers.
    
    Blizzard’s quest to monetize D3 has made the experience wholly inferior to it’s predecessor. And all to feed Blizzard’s gaping money maw. The complaints have merit, whether Blizzdrones can accept it or not.
    - Old Ben
      
      You seem to have completely missed the point of my post. Or maybe you just used it as a pretext to post something unrelated that you wanted to post anyway…?
      
      P.S. – Yeah, you caught me, I’m a total “Blizzdrone”. /sarcasm
http://twitter.com/HallusH HallusH

they double it. double the fail.
atleast i got triple that money spend on the game back only from 1week with the money AH.
so g_g ?
http://www.facebook.com/daniel.halabe Daniel Halabe

anyone notice when she says you know she says YEEEERRRRR kno?
Zumime

Typo on the GBTV main page title. It says “Diablo 2″ instead of “Diablo 3″.
- http://twitter.com/just_izumi Izumi
  
  Was about to write that. :/
  - http://www.facebook.com/people/Justin-Case/100003772398650 Justin Case
    
    me three
http://www.facebook.com/people/Filip-Buhov/1379207683 Filip Buhov

The biggest issue rly is the mele oriented class mechanics. Biggest fail I’ve seen in a rpg since like for EVER. They need to redo the retarded MUST HAVE weapon with high hp per hit and speed , and above some retarded dps count not droping from the appropriate content.
http://twitter.com/just_izumi Izumi

Blizzard needs to replace some of their internal quality assurance testers. It’s quiet clear that some of them aren’t up to quality themselves. Lol.
Deathstar2x

I wholeheartily agree— Your group of friends are at such a disadvantage if your composition is [for example] two barbarians, one monk and a witch doctor. We simply stop playing instead of being forced to play classes we did not enjoy.
http://twitter.com/Nathiest Nathiest

Still waiting for Fun to be patched in.
Kagitaar

Carina, there’s a difference between features that should have been in at launch and balancing, using the same phrasing for both makes no sense.

Now while it would have been great if every bit of balance in D3 was perfect at launch, that is not a reasonable expectation. Was D2 in a better place by this point in it’s life? Maybe. Was it anywhere near where it is now? No. While I would like fixes and balancing faster, they will be out when they are out and not a moment sooner, so why stress about it? It’s possible to put down a video game and come back to it later.
- http://www.facebook.com/people/Jason-Caswell/631559369 Jason Caswell
  
  It’s been said countless times: You can’t compare Diablo 2 at launch with
  Diablo 3 at launch. It would be like comparing a 2013 Ford Mustang to the Model T. Things have changed, technologies improved, developers become more experienced.
  
  Not allowing the testers to actually test anything (yay 13 levels and a
  snippet of an act!) results in the travesty that we now have. And
  Blizzard scrambling to save their permanently damaged reputation. Even
  if they do manage to save some face, their rep has been damaged.
  - Kagitaar
    
    Yes, they should have just let us play the whole game in beta, that solves everything…
http://www.facebook.com/nik666 Nikolai Tzolev

I wonder, how the fatcats would react to a shift from RMAH to the actual game. If it’s even possible, of course.
http://profile.yahoo.com/YSVAPKVBUPTX6YS3W2DLPOBNN4 AlokP

I don’t think the game was impossible at any point. There are countless, countless videos of people playing playthroughs with no AH gear, or setting a cap on gold AH purchases at a reasonable gold rate. I beat the game on Inferno pre any nerf, and I bought exactly one item off the AH, a weapon (granted, a very important slot). I had to farm Inferno Act I for a couple night, and then Inferno Act II for a couple more, and then Inferno Act III and IV were fine with Act II gear.

Of course, I was playing a wizard – so yeah.
- http://profile.yahoo.com/ITHF7XKYGVXFAPCDMDJTKHLBBU Lian Wan
  
  I can see how someone with horrible luck could have a much more difficult experience. If you encounter nothing but waller/jailer + molten/plague or fire chain+fast then it can feel like a much more difficult game.
Spammerbam

I agree, all these fixes should have been present at launch. But, it’s great to see that D3 is taking steps to fix all these minor problems. I just don’t know if it’s enough to get me back into the game..
- P V
  
  these days there not to many games (maybe none) that have a good balance it is either to easy or way to easy and then the retail version gets over nerfed
  - Spammerbam
    
    Of course, I understand what you’re saying; not every game will be perfect at launch. But as for Diablo 3, there’s so much issues going on that it’s overwhelming. I feel as if Blizzard did a half-ass job with releasing the game; Diablo 3 was nowhere worth the $60, in my opinion.
    
    I think Blizzard could have saved a lot of fans if the changes in this 1.0.4 patch was released earlier as one of the first patches, AND add some more contents. Would you think so, too?
http://www.facebook.com/gabriel.martin.5682 Gabriel Martin

Played Diablo III, got tired of it and now I am done with it. It was an OK game but I expected better. Blizzard can put all the fixes they want in, it still won’t bring me back. The only way I see myself trying this game again, is if they release new content. I am sure they won’t do that unless it is through an expansion. I am sure to have really low expectations for it so if I do buy it, wich I probably won’t, it will probably not disappoint me.
http://www.facebook.com/neal.reagan Neal Reagan

i needz haz pvp, plz.

but srsly, whatever happened to the good dungeon crawlers. Neverwinter nights was great (imo), baldur’s gate 1 and 2 were great, the first 2 diablo’s were great. Why did blizz have to go and ruin a great system with the most repetitive junk they could come up with?! srsly, this campaign is laughable. Lol. See?! i just lol’d.
- http://profile.yahoo.com/ITHF7XKYGVXFAPCDMDJTKHLBBU Lian Wan
  
  Have you tried Path of Exile? It’s pretty nice although inputs need to be a bit more responsive.
http://profile.yahoo.com/ITHF7XKYGVXFAPCDMDJTKHLBBU Lian Wan

Too late but it doesn’t matter, they already have my money. The issue with fire chain makes me wonder if they’ve played their own game. Fire chain is horrible but I don’t think that is the real issue. The real issue is that the game doesn’t reward you for any of these challenges. I’ve had a few fights that feel “epic” but the end of all those were just big let downs because the loot wasn’t any different for any old trash mob.
Nitro Neo

Edit Main page link please… it says
Preview: Diablo 2 Patch 1.0.4

Diablo III Patch 1.0.4 Preview

The War Z Is Out! Infestation: Survivor Stories Is In!

UPDATE! It is Official! Microsoft Planning A Full Reversal On Xbox One DRM!

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