Bot Bans and Hotfixes Prepare for Season 2
Diablo III Season 2 is nearly ready to start
Bans for Botting
Some of the leaderboard rankings shifted when high ranking Diablo III accounts were no longer listed. That is because they were banned for botting, in one of the regular "ban waves" that rolls out from time to time.
Post by Blizzard (Blue Tracker, Official Forum)
Some of the shifts you may be seeing on leaderboards are a direct result of a recent ban wave issued for cheating.
Players that were found to be in violation were removed from the leaderboards and other rankings have been adjusted appropriately as a result. This means your ranking may have increased if someone ranked above you was removed from the leaderboard. As we move forward to future seasons and eras, we'll be continuing to monitor for such behavior and take appropriate action, though we may not always message when such ban waves occur.
Players that were found to be in violation were removed from the leaderboards and other rankings have been adjusted appropriately as a result. This means your ranking may have increased if someone ranked above you was removed from the leaderboard. As we move forward to future seasons and eras, we'll be continuing to monitor for such behavior and take appropriate action, though we may not always message when such ban waves occur.
More Patch 2.1.2 Hotfixes
Another round of hotfixes rolled out this week. They included more removal of "snapshotting" damage. The hotfix for Alaric's quest listed as "upcoming" likely is already live, as the developers squash the more egregious ways of leveling in ways not intended.
Post by Blizzard (Blue Tracker, Official Forum)
The following hotfixes have been applied:
Items:
Rifts:
The following hotfix is pending and not yet live:
General:
Items:
- Fixed an issue where the damage over time effect of Band of Hollow Whispers would permanently snapshot damage buffs (2/10)
- Fixed an issue where the damage over time effect of Pox Faulds would permanently snapshot damage buffs (2/10)
- Fixed an issue where the Haunt effect from Sebor's Nightmare would permanently snapshot damage buffs (2/10)
Rifts:
- Resolved an issue where it was sometimes possible to take damage while under the effects of a Shield Pylon (2/10)
The following hotfix is pending and not yet live:
General:
- Reducing the amount of experience and gold gained upon subsequent completions of the quest "The Broken Blade." Gold and experience gained on first completion will remain unchanged.
Rift of Trials
The Rift of Trials used at the start of Greater Rifts is a controversial system that can feel tedious to complete every time before starting a Greater Rift. As noted in the recent Tavern Talk, it was added to make the start of a Greater Rifts easier than the original design, but there is still room for improvement there. That way of starting out Greater Rifts may be replaced or revamped down the road.
Post by Blizzard (Blue Tracker, Official Forum)
It was designed to be a convenience, because before Trials you started at Greater Rift level 1 and advanced from there every time. Trials were designed as a way to skip this process.
That's exactly right. When Greater Rifts were first added to the game, players were able to start at Greater Rift 1 and jump up in difficulty quickly. However, this often led to them overshooting their mark and biting off more than they could chew difficulty-wise.
Although Rifts of Trials were intended to solve this problem (by helping players gauge the best Greater Rift level for them more quickly), they ended up becoming tedious for many players. As Travis mentioned during yesterday's Tavern Talk, we agree with players that it's silly to have to go through the Realm of Trials each time you want to do a Greater Rift. After all, that's like having to "measure up" each time you go on the same ride at a theme park (versus only the first time), right?
At any rate, we agree the Realm of Trials is flawed, which is why the development team is looking at other options for how to structure Rifts and Greater Rifts.
Edit: The Twitch VOD for yesterday's Tavern Talk is now available. You can hear where the developers talked about Rifts of Trials at around 1:14:12. Hope that helps!
Claiming Seasonal Items
Items in the stash at the end of Season 1 were sent to the Diablo III in-game mailbox. It is very easy to accidentally select the Delete option while taking an item out of the mailbox, so be careful if you still have items to retrieve!
Post by Blizzard (Blue Tracker, Official Forum)
I lost a good portion of my mail do to an accidental click on the delete button while scrolling over it to the claim button.
The buttons are pretty close together, I almost let my cursor stray over and delete some things I wanted to keep.
It's odd that there is no confirmation dialogue to prevent this.
This is very good feedback, and I want to thank all of you for sharing it. It's especially useful since this is the type of issue we can't always catch in our internal testing (and because this feature was tested in a limited capacity on the PTR for patch 2.1.2).
While these usability issues won't surface again until the end of Season 2, I've passed several reports about this on to the development team, so they can look at it as a possible improvement for future Seasons. Much appreciated!
Using a VPN With Diablo III
VPN services are allowed to be used with Diablo III, and other Blizzard games. With the IP checking that is done for security purposes, it may often takes extra steps to log in when using that type of service.
Post by Blizzard (Blue Tracker, Official Forum)
AnkleBreaker,
None of that will cause any issues with your account, nor would using a VPN service really. The only drawback to using one is that due to the nature of how they work, you may have your account temporarily locked as the servers would see connections coming from different geographical locations, not normally used with your account. As we see this as a potential compromise, the account is prevented from logging in temporarily until the instructions in the email you would be sent are followed. It's pretty much just an inconvenience. Nothing bad happens to your account.
_________________________________________________________
I'm available in the forums Tuesday - Thursday 7 am - 4 pm Pacific Time,
Friday 11 am - 8 pm Pacific Time ,Saturday 10 am - 7 pm Pacific Time
Feedback? - https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/Omrakos
None of that will cause any issues with your account, nor would using a VPN service really. The only drawback to using one is that due to the nature of how they work, you may have your account temporarily locked as the servers would see connections coming from different geographical locations, not normally used with your account. As we see this as a potential compromise, the account is prevented from logging in temporarily until the instructions in the email you would be sent are followed. It's pretty much just an inconvenience. Nothing bad happens to your account.
_________________________________________________________
I'm available in the forums Tuesday - Thursday 7 am - 4 pm Pacific Time,
Friday 11 am - 8 pm Pacific Time ,Saturday 10 am - 7 pm Pacific Time
Feedback? - https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/Omrakos
Recent News
Server optimizations are being tested on the Public Test Realm
Official patch notes and server changes for Season 7
An overview of the patch that is arriving this week, and bringing Season 7
A look at the rewards in Season 7, and the journey to achieve them
A weekend Diablo III bonus buff on the PC, PS4, and Xbox One
Diablo III: Ultimate Evil Edition
The console Diablo III edition includes all of the Reaper of Souls content, and special social features!
PlayStation 3
Xbox 360
PlayStation 4
Xbox One
Hot Topics
Official patch notes and server changes for Season 7, including new Torment difficulties and a nerf to group buffs.
An overview of the bigger changes and additions in patch 2.4.2.
A look at the rewards in Season 7, and the journey to achieve them.
Diablo III: Reaper of Souls Ultimate Evil Edition Strategy Guide
A guide for the console edition of Diablo III. Includes details on all the classes, crafting, monster lore, and much more!
Track Your Diablo III BattleTag
Use the BattleTag Locator to view a Diablo III account and characters, including heroes and Paragon Levels for Season 3!
