Season 2 End Pre-Announced
A two week warning will precede the close of Diablo III Season 2
Season 2 Ending Pre-Announcement
Season 1 lasted for over five months, with 30 days of warning before it ended. Season 2 started on February 13, and may not even run for a full two months. To speed up the process, the Diablo III team will be providing a two week notice before Season 2 wraps up.
Post by Blizzard (Blue Tracker, Official Forum)
We've been thrilled to see so many players actively participating in Season 2 as well as on the PTR for our upcoming 2.2.0 patch. Your feedback has been integral in the great strides we've made towards not only our next patch, but our next Season. As we previously mentioned during our most recent Tavern Talk, we want to ensure our patching schedule provides the best player experience possible while allowing us to provide updates in a timely fashion. To facilitate this, we're moving towards the following model:
We received a lot of feedback during Season 1 that thirty days was too long a time frame for an end of season announcement. For Season 2, we'd like to instead provide a two week notice. At the time of that notice, we will also provide the exact times that Season 2 will end as well as the date and exact times that Season 3 will begin.
Please note that this post is not the two-week warning. While we don't have that information to share with you today, we want those of you participating in the current Season to know what to expect moving forward so you might plan accordingly to meet your Seasonal goals.
In the meantime, we wish all Season 2 challengers the best of luck, whether it’s knocking out a Conquest, putting together your perfect set of gear, seeing how high you can get in Greater Rifts, or wherever your adventures may take you.
- End the current Season
- Launch our latest patch
- Begin the next Season
We received a lot of feedback during Season 1 that thirty days was too long a time frame for an end of season announcement. For Season 2, we'd like to instead provide a two week notice. At the time of that notice, we will also provide the exact times that Season 2 will end as well as the date and exact times that Season 3 will begin.
Please note that this post is not the two-week warning. While we don't have that information to share with you today, we want those of you participating in the current Season to know what to expect moving forward so you might plan accordingly to meet your Seasonal goals.
In the meantime, we wish all Season 2 challengers the best of luck, whether it’s knocking out a Conquest, putting together your perfect set of gear, seeing how high you can get in Greater Rifts, or wherever your adventures may take you.
New Blood Shard Cap
The most recent patch 2.2.0 build on the PTR added a method of raising the cap for Blood Shards, based on the personal Greater Rift reached. Nevalistis provided some extra details about how the new Blood Shard cap will work.
Post by Blizzard (Blue Tracker, Official Forum)
Just a few clarifications:
Hope this is more clear!
- The boost to your cap is not retroactive. You will need to run additional solo Greater Rifts after 2.2.0 goes live to update your Blood Shard cap.
- Your cap will increase by 10 per solo Greater Rift level completed. For example, if you complete a level 20 solo Greater Rift right after the patch launches, your cap will increase to 700 (a bonus of 200). If you then complete a level 21 solo Greater Rift, your cap will increase by another 10 ( and so forth).
- Your "Personal Best" is defined by the highest Greater Rift level you reach. In the case of increasing your Blood Shard cap, this only applies to your highest solo Greater Rift level reached.
Hope this is more clear!
Patch 2.1.2 Hotfixes
Along with all the ongoing work on the patch 2.2.0 PTR, there were a couple of important hotfixes that went out recently on the live Patch 2.1.2 Diablo III server. One major fix involved an unintended interaction between the bonus damage effect on the weapon Sever, a Monk with Exploding Palm, and a Demon Hunter using Marked for Death - Grim Reaper. Those could be combined to one-shot extremely high health Greater Rift bosses, which was clearly not intended. While the exploit has been hotfixed, the top 4-player Greater Rift leaderboard rankings were achieved using it. This may be one of the reasons that Season 2 (and presumably the non-Seasonal Era 2) will be closed out in a fairly short time, to move on to a Season without such exploits.
Post by Blizzard (Blue Tracker, Official Forum)
The below hotfixes are now live:
Items:
Demon Hunter
Items:
- Fixed an issue where Bul-Kathos' Wedding Band would snapshot certain damage attributes (3/11)
Demon Hunter
- Fixed an issue where Marked for Death (Grim Reaper) would spread the effect of Sever's on-kill affix (3/11)
Season 3 Legendary Items
As with the first two seasons, Season 3 will have exclusive Legendary equipment and gems that are only available to Seasonal characters while the Season is active. Right now on the PTR many of those eventual Seasonal items aren't flagged as Seasonal, so they drop for any heroes. As patch 2.2.0 wends through development, we will learn exactly which items will be restricted for Season 3.
Post by Blizzard (Blue Tracker, Official Forum)
The new gems and some of the new legendarys very likely will be Season 3 only.
This is correct. The Season 3 Legendary items went into the 2.2.0 PTR patch without being flagged as Seasonal items, so they are currently dropping for everyone regardless of which game mode you are in. Of course, this will change for when the patch goes live, but in the meantime, it allows a greater pool of folks the opportunity to try them out and test them. :)
Why weren't the "Bane of the Strickin" and the "Iceblink" new legendary gems dropping for everyone then?
The exception is actually the Legendary gems, which should be flagged as Seasonal only. I'm checking into Mutilation and some of the other details; as soon as I have additional clarification, I'll be happy to share it!
Play Your Way Livestream VOD
The Play Your Way round 6 livestream ran last Friday, with Diablo III software engineer Roger Hughston along to discuss the more technical side of the game. You can watch the VOD for insights into the work that goes into making the spells and skills of Diablo III.2014 Blizzard Stream Awards
The nominees have been announced for the 2014 Blizzard Stream Awards powered by Twitch. See the many categories to vote for across Blizzard's games. If you enjoyed watching specific streamers and channels this past year, jump in and vote for your favorites!
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