Hotfix and Bans for Blood Thief Goblin Exploit
Blizzard also requests information from players with performance issues in patch 2.2.0
Hotfix for Blood Thief Goblin Exploit
The exploit with Blood Thief Goblins involved a group killing those treasure goblins in such a manner as to get far more Blood Shards than were intended. As shown on the in-game BattleTag profile, some accounts had already gained hundreds of thousands of Blood Shards since Patch 2.2 went live. This clear abuse of game mechanics provided a significant advantage in game.Community manager Lylirra announced the public response from Blizzard. A hotfix quickly rolled out following the announcement, to make the exploit no longer possible. Blizzard will also be taking action against accounts that were clearly abusing the exploit. There have been scattered reports of bans so far, with other suspensions or bans on a broader level likely still to come.
Post by Blizzard (Blue Tracker, Official Forum)
UPDATE – April 21 @ 6:05 p.m. PDT
While this issue is now resolved, we know a lot of players have questions about what happened and how we responded, so we wanted to take some time to discuss a few of the details with you here.
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UPDATE – April 16 @ 3:30 p.m. PDT
This hotfix is now live.
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Hey everyone,
We're currently working on a hotfix to address an exploit that allows players to gain a significantly larger number of Blood Shards from Blood Thief goblins than intended. While we don't have an ETA to share at this time, we're looking to implement the hotfix (which will also address the underlying bug) as soon as possible in all gameplay regions and will be sure to update this thread once it's live.
With this, we're also in the process of actioning accounts which have been found to be actively using this exploit to gain an unfair advantage. This behavior not only undermines the spirit play, but directly violates our in-game policies for Diablo III. As always, maintaining a stable, safe, and enjoyable online environment for legitimate players is very important to us, and we'll be continuing to keep watch on Battle.net and taking additional action as needed.
In the meantime, we encourage everyone to please game responsibly. Not only can using exploits lead to account penalties, but it can also negatively impact the enjoyment of your fellow players. This is why we're working as quickly as we can to fix the underlying issue, and why we'd appreciate your help in keeping the effects of the exploit as minimal as possible until it's removed from the game.
For more information on how to report exploitative behavior, click here. For questions regarding account actions, please refer to Account Administration.
Thank you!
While this issue is now resolved, we know a lot of players have questions about what happened and how we responded, so we wanted to take some time to discuss a few of the details with you here.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
UPDATE – April 16 @ 3:30 p.m. PDT
This hotfix is now live.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hey everyone,
We're currently working on a hotfix to address an exploit that allows players to gain a significantly larger number of Blood Shards from Blood Thief goblins than intended. While we don't have an ETA to share at this time, we're looking to implement the hotfix (which will also address the underlying bug) as soon as possible in all gameplay regions and will be sure to update this thread once it's live.
With this, we're also in the process of actioning accounts which have been found to be actively using this exploit to gain an unfair advantage. This behavior not only undermines the spirit play, but directly violates our in-game policies for Diablo III. As always, maintaining a stable, safe, and enjoyable online environment for legitimate players is very important to us, and we'll be continuing to keep watch on Battle.net and taking additional action as needed.
In the meantime, we encourage everyone to please game responsibly. Not only can using exploits lead to account penalties, but it can also negatively impact the enjoyment of your fellow players. This is why we're working as quickly as we can to fix the underlying issue, and why we'd appreciate your help in keeping the effects of the exploit as minimal as possible until it's removed from the game.
For more information on how to report exploitative behavior, click here. For questions regarding account actions, please refer to Account Administration.
Thank you!
Patch 2.2.0 Hotfixes
More Diablo III PC patch 2.2.0 hotfixes have landed, including rolling restarts of the servers to take care of the Blood Thief exploit. Since these hotfixes went live, there have been reports (such as a reddit thread) that Gelatinous Spire goblin is now splitting into dozens of Gelatinous Spawn goblins. Presumably that will also be hotfixed in the near future.
Post by Blizzard (Blue Tracker, Official Forum)
Below you will find a list of hotfixes recently applied or coming soon that address various bugs or mechanic tweaks.
These hotfixes should not require you to download a new patch. Some of the hotfixes below will go live the moment they are implemented while others may require restarting the game to go into effect. Please keep in mind that some issues cannot be addressed without a client-side patch. Also note that changes to certain abilities will not be reflected in its tooltip until a patch is issued.
Last updated May 5. Hotfixes are denoted by the date they were applied to live servers.
Previous Hotfixes: [2.1.0] [2.1.1] [2.1.2]
[UPCOMING HOTFIXES]
There are no upcoming hotfixes to report at this time.
[LIVE HOTFIXES]
General
Items
Monsters
Bounties
These hotfixes should not require you to download a new patch. Some of the hotfixes below will go live the moment they are implemented while others may require restarting the game to go into effect. Please keep in mind that some issues cannot be addressed without a client-side patch. Also note that changes to certain abilities will not be reflected in its tooltip until a patch is issued.
Last updated May 5. Hotfixes are denoted by the date they were applied to live servers.
Previous Hotfixes: [2.1.0] [2.1.1] [2.1.2]
[UPCOMING HOTFIXES]
There are no upcoming hotfixes to report at this time.
[LIVE HOTFIXES]
General
- Fixing an issue where the Greater Rift timer will occasionally start with less than 15 minutes remaining (5/4)
- Fixing an issue where the Spectral Hound pet will despawn upon character death (5/4)
- The basic Healing Potion should no longer occasionally vanish from a player's hotbar (4/10)
Items
- The legendary affix for the item Death's Bargain has been re-enabled (5/4)
- Fixing an issue where the 6-piece bonus from Zunimassa's Haunt is overwritten when more than one Witch Doctor applies the effect to the same enemy (5/4)
- Fixing an issue where some players are not able to access their BlizzCon 2014 transmogrification appearances (5/4)
- Fixing an issue where the combination of Rogar's Huge Stone and Molten Wildebeest's Gizzard would occasionally cause the game to crash (5/4)
- The legendary affix for the item Death's Bargain has been temporarily disabled. (4/28)
- Fixed an issue where stash tabs purchased during a Season were not rolling over correctly to your non-Seasonal stash once a Season ended (4/17)
Monsters
- Reduced the number of targets that the Gelatinous Sire can split into in multiplayer games (5/4)
- Gelatinous Sire spawns will now have a small moment of invulnerability when they initially split (5/4)
- Fixed an issue where the Gelatinous Sire would occasionally fail to split (4/16)
- Fixed a bug which caused Blood Thief goblins in multiplayer games to drop more Blood Shards than intended (4/16)
Bounties
- The "Wormsign" bounty should now always be able to be completed (4/10)
- The "Wortham Survivors" bounty has been disabled (4/16)
- This bounty cannot always be completed and we will be addressing this issue in a later patch
Blood Thief Goblin Disabled on PS4/XB1
A different approach temporarily dealt with the Blood Thief Goblin issue in the Diablo III: Ultimate Evil Edition on the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One consoles. That treasure goblin will no longer spawn on the console editions, until a further hotfix or patch can permanently take care of the problem.
Post by Blizzard (Blue Tracker, Official Forum)
Hey everyone,
As some of you may have noticed, we recently deployed a hotfix for PC to address an exploit that allowed players to gain a significantly larger number of Blood Shards from Blood Thief goblins than intended.
This issue exists for Ultimate Evil Edition on the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, as well, but we’re unable to correct it via hotfix at this time for these platforms. We’re looking to implement a permanent solution in a future console patch, but don’t have an ETA to share. In the meantime, to help mitigate the effects of the exploit, we’ve temporarily disabled Blood Thief goblins from spawning on PS4 and XB1 until further notice.
We apologize for any inconvenience and thank you for your understanding!
As some of you may have noticed, we recently deployed a hotfix for PC to address an exploit that allowed players to gain a significantly larger number of Blood Shards from Blood Thief goblins than intended.
This issue exists for Ultimate Evil Edition on the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, as well, but we’re unable to correct it via hotfix at this time for these platforms. We’re looking to implement a permanent solution in a future console patch, but don’t have an ETA to share. In the meantime, to help mitigate the effects of the exploit, we’ve temporarily disabled Blood Thief goblins from spawning on PS4 and XB1 until further notice.
We apologize for any inconvenience and thank you for your understanding!
Achievements in Season 3
The achievements available to Season 3 heroes are very different from previous Seasons. The standard exploration and kill achievements are not part of the Season 3 list, with a smaller and more difficult set of Seasonal achievements to obtain. This makes it a significant goal to obtain the 100 Season 3 achievement points needed for the Season 3 pennant, or 400 Seasonal achievement points for the special portrait frame. Tyvalir jumped into a lengthy discussion on the topic, to gather feedback for the developers. The Seasons in Diablo III are still very much a work in progress, and this will no doubt be adjusted further in future Seasons.
Post by Blizzard (Blue Tracker, Official Forum)
We don't mind re-doing achievements, Blizzard. New and exclusive challenges are nice, but don't take away from the casual experience, please. That's a really big part of the fun for us who don't feel like real competitive play.
Cutting out all the original achievements (class, explore, event, boss and monster kills, etc) is not the way to spark interest in Season 3. It excludes a massive amount of the player base shooting for "The Achievement Point Leaderboards" in a season.
I agree 100%. I was so looking forward to going for the achievements and competing for them (when I was able) and seeing where I fell on the leaderboards. But when I logged in, it seemed like 90% of the achievements were gone.
I have zero desire to put the time into competing on grifts and conquests, but last season at least I could get into the top 1000 by playing a lot and picking up a ton of random achievements.
Great feedback! You all have my thanks for sharing your perspectives so constructively here. Even fifteen pages later, I can see that most responses are on topic and respectful in their tone. *insert applause*
I'm still parsing through and collecting all of the ideas presented in this thread (since there's a lot of good stuff here). By all means, please continue this discussion and I'll make sure your feedback gets in front of the right folks.
Feedback Requested for Performance Issues in Patch 2.2
Since Diablo III PC patch 2.2.0 went live, some players have seen a lot of game graphic stutters or other performance issues. The Quality Assurance team at Blizzard is looking to gather information on the specific systems that are having these problems, so they can narrow down the issue and get it fixed. If you are having these sort of problems, you can follow the steps listed to gather the needed data, and email it in.
Post by Blizzard (Blue Tracker, Official Forum)
Hey folks,
We're having a difficult time trying to reproduce this issue. I'm hoping that those of you experiencing this issue can send me a bit more information so that I can forward it to our QA team to assist with their investigation.
If you get the chance, please send the following info to forumtech@blizzard.com:
The contents of your D3Prefs.txt file located in your Documents\Diablo III A description of what you're doing when experiencing this issue. For example, what are you doing in-game and are you in a specific area. While playing, are you running any applications in the background? Maybe something like youtube, netflix, spotify, etc... Attach your MSInfo and DXDIAG.
Here's how to do that: Obtaining System Files ______________________________________________________
I'm available Sunday through Thursday from 11AM to 8PM Pacific Time
Support Contact Information
Got some feedback?
We're having a difficult time trying to reproduce this issue. I'm hoping that those of you experiencing this issue can send me a bit more information so that I can forward it to our QA team to assist with their investigation.
If you get the chance, please send the following info to forumtech@blizzard.com:
Here's how to do that: Obtaining System Files
I'm available Sunday through Thursday from 11AM to 8PM Pacific Time
Support Contact Information
Got some feedback?
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