Diablo III – 31 January 2020 | Unleashes New Power!

PATCH 2.6.8

A new Season Theme has been added for Season 20, the Season of the Forbidden Archives:
- For the duration of Season 20, all slots in Kanai's Cube will be able to select Legendary powers from Weapon, Armor, or Jewelry
  - This means you could select three Armor powers, three Weapon powers, three Jewelery powers, or any other combination thereof across all categories
  - Items are not self-additive or multiplicative (meaning, you cannot stack multiples of the same item's power)
  - Once the Season has ended and characters roll over to Non-Season, players will have all currently active powers in their Kanai's Cube reset
  - Developer's Note: As we outlined in our Developer Insight blog, we want to continue to get creative (and maybe a little crazy) with the Season Themes and powers we add to the game. We heard from some players that they preferred themes that made your character directly feel more powerful rather than needing to focus on the environment around you. If that describes you, then the Season of Forbidden Archives should be right up your alley, and we're really interested to see how this changes the game for Season 20.
Two new Seasonal rewards are available for players who fully complete the Season 20 Journey, including a new portrait frame and pet

Classes

Crusader
- Developer's Note: We're not convinced that this change has fully reigned in Crusader performance to be more in line with other classes. We'll be continuing to keep an eye on overall Crusader performance (as well as performance among the other classes) as we move into 2.6.8 and beyond.
- Heaven's Fury
  - The animation for the Fires of Heaven rune can no longer be cancelled early.
Witch Doctor
- Spirit Barrage (Phantasm)
  - The periodic attacks from Spirit Barrage (Phantasm) are now twice as slow, but twice as powerful

Items

Developer's Note: With Patch 2.6.8, we're adding three(!) new class sets with similar goals to those we included in the previous patch. Each set was designed primarily with boosting long-requested skills and play styles we lifted directly from community feedback. Frenzy, Spirit Barrage, and Hydra were requests that offered a lot of opportunity for gameplay exploration, and we're looking forward to seeing what players do with these new tools at their disposal. Additional changes to associated supplemental Legendaries have been included to round out these builds. It is critical when providing feedback on these sets to include whether or not you were using the Season 20 buff during your testing; while feedback of any kind is welcome, we're especially interested in Non-Seasonal testing as that will better reflect the long-term performance of these sets.
Mantle of Channeling
- The bonus granted by this item now occurs 1 second after channeling has begun
Barbarian
- Developer's Note: We wanted to provide an alternative method to gaining the benefit of the 2-Piece bonus of Horde of the Ninety Savages. Adding in Frozen as an option allows this benefit to work on bosses, provides an alternative gearing option, and should work better in groups without having to remove an option for play.
- New Class Set: Horde of the Ninety Savages
  - 2-Piece Bonus: Double the effectiveness of all Shouts. Feared and Frozen Enemies take double damage.
  - 4-Piece Bonus: Each stack of Frenzy reduces damage taken by 5% 6%. Frenzy lasts twice as long.
  - 6-Piece Bonus: Frenzy deals 1000% increased damage per stack.
- Undisputed Champion
  - Frenzy gains the effect of every rune and deals 300-400% increased damage.
- Bastion's Revered
  - Frenzy now stacks up to 10 times and hits an additional time per stack. Each additional hit will chain to any enemies within 15 yards and the damage is split between all affected enemies.
Witch Doctor
- Developer's Note: Many of the changes we made for the Witch Doctor focused on improving the set's survivability and server performance. We also improved the behavior of Big Bad Voodoo, so it should be much less likely to be left behind!
- New Class Set: Mundunugu's Regalia
  - 2-Piece Bonus: Big Bad Voodoo now follows you and lasts twice as long.
    - Big Bad Voodoo will now follow you more closely, across zones, and correctly in groups
  - 4-Piece Bonus: Gain ~~50%~~ 60% damage reduction for 30 seconds when you enter the Spirit Realm.
  - 6-Piece Bonus: Spirit Barrage deals increased damage equal to ~~50 times~~ 50% of your Mana Regeneration per Second.
    - Developer Note: This isn't actually a buff or a nerf; it's a rewording to make the functionality of this bonus more clear.
- The Barber
  - Instead of dealing direct damage, your Spirit Barrage now accumulates on the target. When you stop casting, it explodes dealing ~~225-250%~~ 400-500% of the accumulated damage to all enemies within 15 yards.
  - Is now classified as a Ceremonial Knife, with a base 1.4 attack speed
- Gazing Demise
  - Spirit Barrage gains the Phantasm rune. Each active Phantasm lasts twice as long, increases the damage of Spirit Barrage by ~~40-50%~~ 100-150%, and also increases the attack rate from Manitou spectres.
  - PTR CHANGE: The attack rate granted to Manitou specters has been slightly reduced.
- Ring of Emptiness
  - You deal 250-300% increased damage to enemies affected by ~~both~~ either your Haunt ~~and~~ or Locust Swarm.
Wizard
- Developer's Note: Wizard encountered a lot of bugs with its new class set, so please make sure to check the Bug Fixes section below for additional detail! We did consider adding another skill into The Typhon's Veil, but we believe there's more work to do first on Wizard Legendary options to make choices outside of the Etched Sigil/Deathwish/Mantle of Channeling combo more appealing. We're looking at this now as a longer term goal, as we have plans to do much larger overall balance passes in the future after all the new class sets have been added to the game.
- New Class Set: The Typhon's Veil
  - 2-Piece Bonus: Double the duration of Hydras and increase the number of heads on multi-headed Hydras by two.
  - 4-Piece Bonus: Damage taken is reduced by 8% for each Hydra head alive as long as there is one available. Each time you take damage, a Hydra heads dies. Heads cannot die more than once every 2 seconds
  - 6-Piece Bonus: Hydras deal ~~1000%~~ 1200% increased damage for each Hydra head alive.
- Serpent's Sparker
  - You may have one extra Hydra active at a time and they deal ~~450-600%~~ 350-450% increased damage.
- The Magistrate
  - ~~Frost Hydra~~ Your Hydras now periodically casts Frost Nova and deal ~~450-600%~~ 350-450% increased damage.
- Etched Sigil
  - The bonus granted by this item now occurs 1 second after channeling has begun.
- Deathwish
  - The bonus granted by this item now occurs 1 second after channeling has begun.

Bugs

Several issues with adding/removing players to group and starting new games as a group have been resolved
Captain Crimson's Trimmings
- Fixed an issue where the set bonus did not increase damage reduction when using Devour - Voracious
Barbarian
- Fixed a bug where Threatening Shout (Grim Harvest) would not activate when enhanced by the Horde of the Ninety Savages set bonus
Crusader
- Corrected the spelling of “Imperius” on the flavor text for several pieces of the Aegis of Valor set
- Fixed an issue where the bolts cast by Fist of the Heavens - Divine Well failed to zap enemies
Demon Hunter
- Fixed an issue where In-geom was not properly dropping for Demon Hunters
Wizard
- PTR CHANGE: Arcane Dynamo should now properly apply to extra Hydra heads created by The Typhon's Veil
- PTR CHANGE: Fixed a bug where active Shields would not prevent Hydra heads from dying while utilizing The Typhon's Veil
- Fixed a bug where Arcane Torrent would get an extra damage multiplier from Etched Sigil and Deathwish
- Fixed a bug where Hydra (Frost Hydra) was getting a damage bonus instead of Attack Speed bonus from its owner's Attack Speed; this rune now benefits from Attack Speed in the same manner as other Hydra runes

PTR Only Changes

Djank Mi'em's Bag of Fortunes now also include crafting materials

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.

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.