Blizzard Quote [source]

The Crusader's background and history certainly played a role in the development of her abilities. For example, as members of a divine martial order, Crusaders are never truly alone and can trust their companions to have their backs in battle. This idea manifests in skills like Phalanx, Bombardment, Akarat's Champion, and Steed Charge. 

Today, Leviathan#1356 shares a build that focuses on those stalwart associates, with a tendency for big bursts and rapid resource regeneration.

About the Build:

It's been said that sometimes the best defense is a good offense, and Leviathan's "Zoosader" build epitomizes this anecdote. Phalanx takes the forefront in this set of skills, and additional pet summons from complimentary items such as Haunt of Vaxo and the Asheara's Vestments allows the Crusader to summon a contingent of troops to stand by her side in battle. 

In addition to allies, this build capitalizes on quick and effective burst damage. "The goal is to have access to area-of-effect (AOE) skills at all times to clear trash mobs quickly and then to utilize sustained burst to take down Elite packs before they ever have a chance to overwhelm us," Leviathan writes in. "Many people believe that the key to Hardcore is a strong defense, but I'd maintain that having just as strong an offense is essential, too."

My own Crusader has also been experimenting as a Zoosader this week!

To support this burst-oriented play, Leviathan focuses on high resource regeneration by utilizing one-handed weapons and selecting skills with short cooldowns, ensuring that these big push moments come in regular strides. After all, the less your enemies have the option to target you, the less damage there is to mitigate.

The Skills:

Before we get too far into the details, it should be noted this build was submitted before Patch 2.0.5 went live earlier this week. As a result, while I've preserved the original build below, I've also added comments regarding recent changes that reflect how this week's patch affects its concept and execution.

Active Skills:

• Justice (Burst)
  • Primary Wrath generator
  • Reliably procs thematic items, such as Haunt of Vaxo and the 4 Set bonus from Asheara’s Vestments 
  • Provides additional crowd control with a minor stun
• Fist of the Heavens (Retribution)
  • Primary AoE damage dealer
  • Primary (and only) Wrath spender
  • Allows the Crusader to maintain range from his enemies while dealing substantial damage
  • Has a little more control over AoE damage direction than other offerings
• Steed Charge (Ramming Speed)
  • Can serve as a great fight initiator
  • Primarily serves as a method of re-positioning out of hairy situations
• Phalanx (Bowmen)
  • Short cooldowns are preferable and play well with Akarat’s Champion available
    • Note: This skill functions differently as of patch 2.0.5
      • Rather than Akarat's Champion regularly resetting the cooldown on Phalanx (Bowmen) over time, it now allows rapid use of the skill back to back 
      • This results in a much larger singular burst of wave clearing power, leaving less to chance than its previous iteration
  • Compliments a ranged play style
  • Serves as one of the many companions integral to the build's theme
• Laws of Valor (Critical)
  • High attack speed supports rapid resource regeneration
  • Critical Hit Damage builds on bursty aspects and compliments Phalanx damage
  • Additional attacks increase the likelihood of regular affix procs
• Akarat's Champion (Rally)
  • A great damage and resource generator for big burst moments
  • Offers extreme cooldown reduction to encourage regular use of short cooldown skills
    • Note: This skill functions differently as of patch 2.0.5
      • Rather than Akarat’s Champion regularly resetting cooldowns regularly, it now allows rapid use of these skills back to back 
      • This results in a much larger singular burst of wave clearing power, leaving less to chance than its previous iteration
  • Offers excellent utility by breaking crowd control effects; extremely valuable in Hardcore as a result

Passive Skills:
Passives in this build offer much more in terms of customization. As a result the skills listed below are suggestions and not mandatory in order for the build to be successful.

• Righteousness
  • Additional resource regeneration ensures Fist of the Heavens can always be at use between cooldowns
• Lord Commander
  • Vastly increases the damage output of Phalanx
  • Helps ensure Steed Charge is regularly available for tough combats
• Finery
  • A well-rounded supplement to damage
• Blunt
  • Synergizes with the main resource generator to provide just a bit more damage
• Fervor
  • Patch 2.0.5 brought a major revision to this passive, and this works well with the intent of favoring one-handed weapons in Leviathan's build. 
  • Additional attack speed and cooldown reduction compliment many other skills.
  • Recommended to swap out with either Blunt or Righteousness.

The Items:

The Zoosader is a social creature, and needs all the friends she can get to fight alongside her! The recommended items below offer her a veritable menagerie of assistance and help her survive the toughest of rumbles, while burst play is supported through additional resource regeneration options.

Sadly, Leviathan’s original Zoosader has been laid to rest, but here’s a glance at this fallen hero's equipment!

Core Items:
While not mandatory to function, the additional survivability offered by these items as well as their minion-focused affixes help for the foundation for this build.

• Asheara's Vestments
  • Four piece bonus brings your followers into the fray, who can tank some of those nasty hits for you
  • As a crafted set, a bit easier to gear towards and acquire, and a great place to start
• Haunt of Vaxo
  • Shadow clones provided by this item offer wonderful stun utility

Complementary Items:

These items compliment the core items, and mostly focus on increasing efficiency.

• Reaper's Wraps
  • As a crafted item, a bit easier to gear toward and a good place to start
  • Offers excellent resource regeneration for any class
• Ring of Royal Grandeur
  • While a highly coveted item in general, this build can make use of a lot of set items, making this bauble that much more valuable
• Aughild's Authority
  • Three Piece bonus offers strong survivability in Nephalem Rifts 
  • A sure go-to for any Hardcore character

Recommended Stats:
Specific items are less of a concern with this build, and can be filled in for by focusing on the following stats:

• As a pet build, Critical Hit Damage scales wonderfully and drastically improves the performance of Phalanx (Bowmen) 
• Attack speed provides not only much-desired DPS, but indirect Resource Regeneration
• +Physical or +Lightning damage both prove beneficial, but are less required due to the used skills being split between elemental types
• +Damage bonus to specific skills, such as Phalanx, Fist of the Heavens, and Justice, should also be sought

Recommended Difficulty and Game Mode:

When this build was submitted, Leviathan was regularly using it in Hardcore and farming Torment III on his own. Certainly, with the appropriate levels of Damage and Toughness, Zoosader can stand on its own in any difficulty (and any game mode), and flourishes when tackling challenges from Bounties or Nephalem Rifts.

Brave Zoosader Buffy tackled a variety of challenges before falling in combat.

Of course, we always recommend taking careful steps, especially in Hardcore, when trying something new. Be sure to feel out where your gear level is before diving headfirst into any build!

Why We Like This Build:

Pet-based builds can be really appealing for a number of reasons. Not only is it cool to have a cadre of companions following along, but the Crusader makes for a thematically strong commander. Also, while the Crusader herself is a tough, imposing force to be reckoned with, having an army following alongside her and supporting her along the way just makes her all the more intimidating.

The burst aspect of this build is equally appealing, as it provides a sense of rhythmic play, something that I find personally enjoy. Jumping headlong into danger is very intimidating for many players who are new to Hardcore, but knowing this type of playstyle is both feasible and viable can assuage some of those concerns.

Also, it brings you loot. *Note: Does not actually increase your chances of loot.*

I've had a lot of fun experimenting with this build on my own Crusader. If you'd like to see it in action, tune in to tonight's livestream, I'll be playing it all day!

Tell Us What You Think!

Leviathan's Zoosader is a slight concept twist on a character you might not have imagined. Pets are usually the realm of Witch Doctors and Demon Hunters, but the Crusader has the ability to dip her toe in that pool and propser. A thematic build that's both conceptually and mechanically sound, the Zoosader works as advertised and performs admirably.

Are you ready to share your thoughts? What would you change if you had a Zoosader? Have you already given it a shot, and want to share your findings? Let us know in the comments, and be sure to send me your builds at TheorycraftThursday@blizzard.com.  I'm definitely looking forward to seeing what you’ve got to share after Patch 2.0.5 and beyond!

Blizzard Quote [source]

On May 15, 2012, the gates of the Burning Hells opened and Diablo III was unleashed onto the world. Since then, millions of heroes have been created, billions of hours have been spent in games, and trillions of demons have been slaughtered without mercy. We've even released an expansion!

To celebrate the game's second anniversary and the community that made it all possible, players who log in to defend Sanctuary this week will receive double Rift Fragments as well as a +100% boost to their chance to find Legendary items. This bonus birthday buff begins in the Americas on Thursday, May 15 at 12:00 a.m. PDT and ends on Thursday, May 22 at 5:00 a.m. PDT.

Happy demon-hunting, nephalem. Thank you for your continued support, and we wish you many awesome adventures in the coming year!

*The buff is only available on PC and Mac, but it will apply to all characters and stack with similar bonuses.

Blizzard Quote [source]

Diablo III is about to ding Level 2. To commemorate this delightfully diabolical occasion, we’re throwing a little birthday bash over on Twitch—and you’re invited!

On May 15 from 2:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. PDT, I’ll be streaming Reaper of Souls™ direct from Blizzard HQ over at Twitch.tv/Diablo. Throughout the day, I’ll be joined by different developers and players to chat about the game, play the game, address some popular community topics, and answer questions live from viewers like you. If you’ve got some free time this Thursday, we encourage you come hang out, relax, and watch us wreck face (or failboat) our way through Westmarch and beyond.

So, who’s participating in this year’s anniversary stream? To keep the conversation flowing (and offer you a different perspective on how Diablo III and Reaper of Souls came together), each hour of the stream we’ll rotate who’s playing, switching out both our developers and participating players.

Here’s the schedule:

1st Hour – System Design

• Wyatt Cheng (Senior Technical Game Designer)
• Jesse McCree (Lead Content Designer)
• Jeffery “Jaetch” Hwang (Community MVP)

2nd Hour – Art Design

• Neal Wojahn (Technical Artist)
• Kevin K Griffith (Senior Artist)
• Emil “Thunderclaww” Rubakh (r/Diablo Moderator)

3rd Hour – Lore and Story

• Brian Kindregan (Lead Writer)
• Leonard Boyarsky (Senior World Designer)
• Whitney “Neinball” Fairchild (BlizzPro Editor, Westmarch Workshop Co-Host)

4th Hour – Production and Direction

• Josh Mosqueira (Game Director)
• Rob Foote (Senior Game Producer)
• TJ “ArchontheWizard” Robertson (Twitch Streamer, Westmarch Workshop Co-Host)

We’re super excited to get to share this experience with you, and we hope you’ll join us for the Prime Evil’s big day. See you on Twitch!*

*Cake may or may not be provided after this enrichment exercise. 

Blizzard Quote [source]

Diablo III patch 2.0.5 is now live in the Americas. Check out the full patch notes below to learn all about the latest changes.

Important: Please note that you will not be prompted to download patch 2.0.5 until the patch is live in your home region. If you are logging in from a European or Asian client, you will need to wait for this patch to release in that region before it can be installed. Additionally, if your home region is in the Americas, you will be unable to log into Europe or Asia using Global Play after patch 2.0.5 is live until those regions have also patched.

Diablo III Patch 2.0.5 - v2.0.5.23920

Visit our Bug Report forum for a list of known issues.
For a list of up to date hotfixes, please go here.

Table of Contents

• General
• Classes
  • Barbarian
  • Crusader
  • Demon Hunter
  • Monk
  • Witch Doctor
  • Wizard
• Items
  • Class-Specific Items
  • Bug Fixes
• Adventure Mode
  • Horadric Caches
  • Bounty Rewards
  • Kadala
  • Nephalem Rifts
• Crafting
  • Blacksmith
  • Jeweler
  • Mystic
• Followers
  • Templar
• Monsters
• User Interface
  • Bug Fixes
• Bug Fixes

GENERAL

• Increased the radius of "Strength in Numbers" (multiplayer buff) from 100 to 200 yards
• Gold Find on items will now stack multiplicatively with the Gold Find bonus provided from game difficulty
  • This significantly increases the gold reward most players will see when playing on higher difficulty levels or wearing Gold Find gear.
  • Example: Suppose you are playing on Master (+200% Gold Find) and have 50% Gold Find awarded from items. A pile of gold drops that would normally be 50 gold. Your Difficulty bonus increases the 50 gold to 150 gold. Your 50% Gold Find will now increase the 150 gold to 225 gold.
• The 300% Gold Find cap applied to items and Paragon Points has been removed
• The Vote Kick system has received several changes to make it less restrictive:
  • Vote Kicking is now available after you have been in a game for 2 minutes (down from 5 minutes)
  • Killing a champion or rare pack no longer disables vote kicking for 15 seconds
  • After a boss kill, vote kicking is disabled for 15 seconds (down from 3 minutes)
  • Some additional restrictions were also relaxed
  • Known Issue: The tooltip will not reflect these changes
• Tyrael will now chat about his poor eating habits with less frequency

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CLASSES

• Barbarian
  • Philosophy
    • To better support character builds based on a specific damage type we are changing the damage type of a few select runes. This is an ongoing goal - additional changes may be made in the future to any of our classes to make damage types an interesting consideration for character building.
    • Rend is being changed to make the damage more consistent. The difference between getting a Critical Hit or not on Rend made the ability too unpredictable. This is particularly important when the player has the option of reapplying the Damage over Time effect.
    • Finally, we are buffing the least used Fury spender - Seismic Slam. While there will always be a least used skill, we feel the aesthetic of Seismic Slam is very strong, and we would love for more people to enjoy using it. To this end we are making the skill mechanically easier to use as well as directly buffing the damage.
  • Active Skills
    • Frenzy
      • Skill Rune - Sidearm
        • Damage type changed from Physical to Cold
    • Overpower
      • Skill Rune - Crushing Advance
      • Damage type changed from Physical to Cold
    • Rend
      • Rather than rolling for a Critical Hit, Rend will now calculate an average damage augmented by your Critical Hit Chance and Critical Hit Damage on application and apply that damage evenly over the duration of the entire DoT
        • Note: Since the skill can no longer deal a Critical Hit, it will no longer trigger effects that occur on Critical Hit.
    • Revenge
      • Skill Rune - Best Served Cold
        • Damage type changed from Physical to Cold
    • Seismic Slam
      • Now also hits enemies in a 10 yard wide, 10 yard long area in front of you in addition to the existing cone
      • Base weapon damage increase from 550% to 620%
      • Altered the duration of the cast animation to be the same as most other Barbarian abilities.
      • Removed the short knock up
      • Will now ignore line of sight blockers (such as the walls created by the Waller monster affix) when dealing damage
      • Skill Rune - Permafrost
        • Weapon damage increased from 710% to 755%
        • Slow duration reduced from 2 seconds to 1 second
      • Skill Rune - Shattered Ground
        • Weapon damage increased from 710% to 735%
        • Changed the 5 yard knockback to a short knock up
      • Skill Rune - Stagger
        • Has been redesigned: Now reduces the Fury cost from 30 to 22
    • War Cry
      • Range increased from 50 to 100 yards
    • Whirlwind
      • Skill Rune - Hurricane
        • Damage type changed from Physical to Cold
    • Wrath of the Berserker
      • Skill Rune - Arreat's Wail
        • Damage type changed from Physical to Fire
      • Skill Rune - Striding Giant
        • Has been redesigned: Now reduces all damage taken by 50%
  • Passive Skills
    • Inspiring Presence
      • Range increased from 50 to 100 yards
    • Relentless
      • Now has a buff icon when it's active
      • The damage reduction provided will now be reflected in your Toughness

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• Crusader
  • Philosophy
    • Crusaders should be the toughest class in the game and currently they are not. We've increased the 15% damage reduction to 30% to match that of the Monk and Barbarian. In addition we are removing the movement speed penalty on Heavenly Strength while also changing Fervor to be a very strong passive for Crusaders who want to play with a 1-handed weapon. Together these changes should solidify the Crusader fantasy of a powerful tank wielding a giant shield.
    • To better support character builds based on a specific damage type we are changing the damage type of a few select runes. This is an ongoing goal - additional changes may be made in the future to any of our classes to make damage types an interesting consideration for character building.
    • Akarat's Champion has been redesigned. Many of the runes were lackluster while Rally was both too strong but also promoted a style of play that consisted primarily of mashing buttons mindlessly. We've redesigned Rally and buffed the skill and all the other runes.
    • Overall builds that used certain skills such as Judgment - Resolved could do solid damage (though somewhat inconsistent), but if you did not take specific skills or have access to specific Legendary items the damage would fall behind. We are nerfing Judgment - Resolved significantly. A change this large is never easy but this was a mistake we should have caught.
    • To keep Crusader damage competitive we are buffing most of the Crusader's damage abilities across the board. While a few skills have come down slightly in damage, the vast majority are being increased, some by a large margin.
    • Fist of the Heavens and Blessed Shield both fill a similar role of being ranged multi target skills. In order to provide better differentiation we are adjusting Fist of the Heavens to be better at damaging a single target, with the area damage component being a peripheral bonus. To this end the damage of the primary strike of Fist of the Heavens has been increased, while the damage of the secondary bolts has been decreased.
    • Finally, we have done significant redesign to the Crusader's passive abilities. We feel there was an overall lack of interesting passive choices on the Crusader. Rather than try to simply change numbers on existing passives we've tried to provide interesting and compelling choices.
  • General
    • Crusaders now take 30% less damage from all sources
  • Active Skills
    • Akarat's Champion
      • Has been redesigned:
      • This skill now:
        • Increases your damage by 35%
        • Increases Wrath regeneration by 5 per second
        • Makes you immune to crowd control effects
      • Skill Rune - Embodiment of Power
        • Has been redesigned:
          • Now increases the bonus Wrath regeneration to 10 per second
      • Skill Rune - Fire Starter
        • Has been redesigned:
          • Dealing damage now burns enemies with the power of Akarat, for 460% weapon damage as Fire over 3 seconds
      • Skill Rune - Hasteful
        • Has been redesigned:
          • Now gain 15% attack speed while Akarat's Champion is active
      • Skill Rune - Prophet
        • Now also returns you to full health the first time you take fatal damage
      • Skill Rune - Rally
        • Has been redesigned:
          • Now reduces the remaining cooldown of your other abilities by 12 seconds when Akarat's Champion is activated
    • Blessed Hammer
      • Weapon damage increased from 200% to 320%
      • Skill Rune - Burning Wrath
        • Scorched ground weapon damage increased from 150% to 330% per second
      • Skill Rune - Icebound Hammer
        • Explosion weapon damage increased from 75% to 380%
      • Skill Rune - Thunderstruck
        • Arc weapon damage increased from 40% to 60%
    • Blessed Shield
      • Weapon damage increased from 340% to 430%
      • Skill Rune - Combust
        • Explosion weapon damage increased from 270% to 310%
        • Explosion radius increased from 8 to 10 yards
      • Skill Rune - Divine Aegis
        • Damage type changed from Holy to Physical
      • Skill Rune - Shattering Throw
        • Fragment weapon damage decreased from 333% to 170%
    • Bombardment
      • Rather than a random variance, there is now a static 0.35 second delay between Bombardment assaults. This should make the damage more consistent and more reliable.
      • Skill Rune - Annihilate
        • Damage type changed from Physical to Fire
      • Skill Rune - Mine Field
        • Damage type changed from Physical to Fire
      • Skill Rune - Targeted
        • Damage type changed from Physical to Holy
      • Bug Fix: Fixed an issue causing the proc coefficient to be lower than intended
    • Condemn
      • Skill Rune - Reciprocate
        • Damage type changed from Holy to Fire
      • Skill Rune - Shattering Explosion
        • Damage type changed from Holy to Physical
      • Bug Fix: Fixed an issue causing the proc coefficient to be lower than intended
    • Consecration
      • Skill Rune - Shattered Ground
        • Weapon damage increased from 95% to 155%
        • Damage from this rune can now trigger procs
    • Falling Sword
      • Weapon damage increased from 1100% to 1700%
      • Replaced the knockback effect with a small knock up
      • Skill Rune - Flurry
        • Sword weapon damage increased from 60% to 230%
        • Damage type changed from Physical to Holy
      • Skill Rune - Part the Clouds
        • Cloud weapon damage increased from 165% to 605%
      • Skill Rune - Rapid Descent
        • Damage type changed from Physical to Lightning
      • Skill Rune - Rise Brothers
        • Avatar weapon damage increased from 143% to 280%
      • Skill Rune - Superheated
        • Superheated ground weapon damage increased from 200% to 310% per second
      • Bug Fix: Fixed an issue causing the proc coefficient to be lower than intended
      • Bug Fix: Fixed an issue causing the impact to always deal Physical damage, regardless of the Rune chosen
    • Fist of the Heavens
      • Explosion weapon damage increased from 340% to 545%
      • Bolt weapon damage reduced from 340% to 255%
      • Skill Rune - Divine Well
        • Bolt weapon damage reduced from 80% to 40%
      • Skill Rune - Fissure
        • Fissure weapon damage increased from 400% to 410% over 5 seconds
        • Arc weapon damage reduced from 185% to 135%
      • Skill Rune - Heaven's Tempest
        • Weapon damage reduced from 150% to 100% per second
        • Damage type changed from Lightning to Fire
      • Skill Rune - Retribution
        • Pierce weapon damage reduced from 350% to 270%
        • Explosion weapon damage increased from 150% to 435%
        • Bolt weapon damage reduced from 350% to 185%
        • Minimum cast range removed
        • Damage type changed from Lightning to Holy
    • Heaven's Fury
      • Weapon damage increased from 1260% to 1710%
      • Skill Rune - Ascendency
        • Weapon damage increased from 1680% to 2766%
      • Skill Rune - Blessed Ground
        • Scorched ground weapon damage increased from 975% to 1550%
      • Skill Rune - Fires of Heaven
        • Weapon damage increased from 735% to 960%
      • Skill Rune - Split Fury
        • Weapon damage increased from 1440% to 1980%
      • Skill Rune - Thou Shalt Not Pass
        • Damage type changed from Holy to Lightning
      • Bug Fix: Fixed an issue causing the proc coefficient to be lower than intended
    • Iron Skin
      • Skill Rune - Explosive Skin
        • Weapon damage increased from 1050% to 1400%
    • Judgment
      • Skill Rune - Resolved
        • Critical Hit Chance bonus reduced from 80% to 20%
    • Justice
      • Weapon damage increased from 240% to 245%
      • Skill Rune - Burst
        • Explosion weapon damage increased from 30% to 60%
      • Skill Rune - Crack
        • Additional hammer weapon damage increased from 175% to 245%
        • Proc chance increased from 80% to 100%
      • Skill Rune - Hammer of Pursuit
        • Weapon damage increased from 300% to 335%
        • Damage type changed from Holy to Physical
      • Skill Rune - Sword of Justice
        • Damage type changed from Holy to Physical
        • Changed from 5 stacks of 3% Movement Speed to 3 stacks of 5% Movement Speed. Total bonus is still 15%, but can now be reached with fewer attacks.
    • Laws of Hope
      • Cooldown reduced to 30 seconds
    • Laws of Justice
      • Cooldown reduced to 30 seconds
    • Laws of Valor
      • Cooldown reduced to 30 seconds
      • Skill Rune - Answered Prayer
        • Has been redesigned: Now each enemy killed while the law is empowered increases the duration by 1 second, up to a maximum of 10 seconds
    • Phalanx
      • Weapon damage increased from 380% to 490%
      • Enemies can now be hit by multiple Phalanx avatars
      • Skill Rune - Bowmen
        • Weapon damage increased from 160% to 185%
      • Skill Rune - Bodyguard
        • Weapon damage increased from 285% to 560%
      • Skill Rune - Stampede
        • Reduced the distance enemies are knocked back
      • Skill Rune - Shield Bearers
        • Reduced the distance enemies are knocked back
    • Provoke
      • Bug Fix: Fixed an issue that allowed Provoke to proc other powers
      • Skill Rune - Charged Up
        • Bug Fix: The chance to deal damage is now, properly, based on the damaging power's proc coefficient
    • Punish
      • Weapon damage increased from 270% to 335%
      • Skill Rune - Fury
        • Damage type changed from Physical to Lightning
      • Skill Rune - Retaliate
        • Weapon damage dealt when you block increased from 94% to 140%
        • Damage type changed from Physical to Holy
      • Skill Rune - Roar
        • Explosion weapon damage increased from 40% to 75%
        • Bug Fix: Fixed an issue preventing the base attack from dealing Fire damage
    • Shield Bash
      • Shield Bash should now more reliably hit targets close to the Crusader
      • If Shield Bash causes the player to charge an enemy, the enemy will now be rooted for 1 second on cast
      • Shield Bash now has smart targeting
        • If you are targeting an area more than 10 yards away from you and click on nothing, the closest target to your click point, within 10 yards, will be charged
      • Skill Rune - Crumble
        • Damage type changed from Holy to Fire
      • Skill Rune - One on One
        • Damage type changed from Holy to Lightning
        • 3 Second immobilize effect has been replaced with a 1.5 second stun
      • Skill Rune - Pound
        • Weapon damage increased from 740% to 1200%
        • Damage type changed from Holy to Physical
        • Should now always hit the chosen target
      • Skill Rune - Shattered Shield
        • Fragment weapon damage increased from 380% to 740%
      • Skill Rune - Shield Cross
        • Additional shield weapon damage increased from 135% to 155%
        • Damage type changed from Holy to Physical
    • Slash
      • Weapon damage increased from 190% to 230%
      • Skill Rune - Carve
        • Should now more reliably hit targets next to the Crusader
      • Skill Rune - Zeal
        • Increased maximum number of stacks from 5 to 10
    • Smite
      • Weapon damage increased from 165% to 175% to primary target
      • Weapon damage increased from 125% to 150% to secondary targets
      • Increased range to 30 yards
      • Now destroys destructible objects, but prioritizes enemies
      • Skill Rune - Shared Fate
        • Damage type changed from Holy to Lightning
      • Skill Rune - Shatter
        • Explosion weapon damage increased from 20% to 60%
      • Skill Rune - Surge
        • Has been redesigned:
          • Now increases the number of additional targets hit by 2
    • Steed Charge
      • Duration increased from 1.5 to 2 seconds
      • Steed Charge should now start its cooldown immediately when used
      • Steed Charge now goes through and destroys destructible objects and doors
      • Skill Rune - Draw and Quarter
        • Damage type changed from Physical to Holy
      • Skill Rune - Endurance
        • Increases the duration to 3 seconds up from 2 seconds
    • Sweep Attack
      • Weapon damage increased from 440% to 480%
      • Width of the cone increased from 120 to 180 degrees to match the visual
      • Skill Rune - Blazing Sweep
        • Additional weapon damage reduced from 170% to 120%
        • Damage over time from Blazing Sweep can now stack with itself
      • Skill Rune - Gathering Sweep
        • Damage type changed from Physical to Holy
  • Passive Skills
    • Fanaticism
      • New Passive Skill: Replaces Nephalem Majesty
      • Increases the attack speed of Justice, Punish, Slash, and Smite by 15%
    • Fervor
      • Has been redesigned:
        • While wielding a one-handed weapon, your attack speed is increased by 15% and all cooldowns are reduced by 15%
    • Finery
      • Has been redesigned:
        • Gain 1.5% Strength for every gem socketed into your gear
    • Heavenly Strength
      • Removed the movement speed penalty
    • Holy Cause
      • Damage bonus now applies to all weapons, not just Holy weapons
    • Indestructible
      • Has been redesigned:
        • When you receive fatal damage, you instead become immune to damage, gain 35% increased damage and (82,526 @L70) Life per Kill for 5 seconds
        • This effect may occur once every 60 seconds
    • Insurmountable
      • Has been redesigned:
        • Blocking an attack generates 6 Wrath
    • Iron Maiden
      • Has been redesigned:
        • Your Thorns has been increased by 50%
    • Nephalem Majesty
      • Has been removed
    • Towering Shield
      • Has been redesigned:
        • Increases the damage of Blessed Shield, Punish, and Shield Bash by 20%
        • Reduces the cooldown of Shield Glare by 30%
    • Vigilant
      • Increased Non-Physical damage reduction from 5% to 20%

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• Demon Hunter
  • Philosophy
    • Demon Hunter survivability is lower than we would like. While the Demon Hunter is not as tough as other classes, this can be frustrating when taken to an extreme. The change to the Awareness passive is a first step; we will be keeping an eye on this and making additional changes as needed in the future. The Marauder's Set bonuses are attractive, but often the pets would get in each other's way or Sentries would not use your spenders often enough. To help improve this set's functionality, Companions have received collision box revisions and the rate at which Sentries use your Hatred spenders has been increased.
  • Active Skills
    • Companion
      • Companions's collision boxes should now more closely match their actual size, and allow them to more effectively surround enemies
    • Grenade
      • Will now more reliably explode when an enemy is near the thrown grenade
      • Explosion radius increased from 5 to 6 yards
      • Collision radius of the projectile has been significantly increased
      • Will now explode closer to your click location if it did not explode before reaching it
      • Max range increased from 45 to 75 yards
    • Hungering Arrow
      • Skill Rune - Devouring Arrow
        • Damage type changed from Physical to Cold
  • Passive Skills
    • Awareness
      • Has been redesigned: Armor is now increased by 30% of your Dexterity

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• Monk
  • Philosophy
    • To better support character builds based on a specific damage type we are changing the damage type of a few select runes. This is an ongoing goal - additional changes may be made in the future to any of our classes to make damage types an interesting consideration for character building.
    • We want to give Monks more options for spending their Spirit. The damage on Wave of Light is being increased to encourage its use as an alternative to the existing popular Spirit spenders.
  • Active Skills
    • Crippling Wave
      • Skill Rune - Rising Tide
        • Damage type changed from Physical to Holy
    • Deadly Reach
      • Skill Rune - Keen Eye
        • Damage type changed from Physical to Fire
      • Skill Rune - Scattered Blows
        • Bug Fix: Fixed an issue preventing the first and second hits from dealing Lightning damage
      • Skill Rune - Strike from Beyond
        • Damage type changed from Physical to Cold
    • Fists of Thunder
      • Skill Rune - Bounding Light
        • Damage type changed from Lightning to Holy
      • Skill Rune - Lightning Flash
        • Has been removed
      • Skill Rune - Quickening
        • Damage type changed from Lightning to Physical
      • Skill Rune - Wind Blast
        • New Skill Rune: Replaces Lightning Flash
        • Every third hit Freezes enemies for 1 second
        • Deals Cold damage
    • Mantra of Conviction
      • Bug Fix: Fixed an issue causing this to provide less bonus damage than intended
    • Sweeping Wind
      • Skill Rune - Inner Storm
        • Damage type changed from Physical to Holy
    • Wave of Light
      • Impact weapon damage increased from 473% to 605%
      • Skill Rune - Blinding Light
        • Has been removed
      • Skill Rune - Explosive Light
        • Weapon damage increased from 731% to 830%
        • Damage type changed from Holy to Fire
      • Skill Rune - Numbing Light
        • New Skill Rune: Replaces Blinding Light
        • Critical Hits Freeze enemies for 4.5 seconds
        • Deals Cold damage
      • Skill Rune - Pillar of the Ancients
        • Has been redesigned:
          • Now deals 635% weapon damage as Lightning, followed by 785% weapon damage as Lightning over 3 seconds to enemies who remain in the area
      • Skill Rune - Wall of Light
        • Impact weapon damage increased from 709% to 870%
        • Damage type changed from Holy to Physical
    • Way of the Hundred Fists
      • Skill Rune - Blazing Fists
        • Damage type changed from Physical to Fire
      • Skill Rune - Hands of Lightning
        • Damage type changed from Physical to Lightning
      • Skill Rune - Spirited Salvo
        • Damage type changed from Physical to Holy

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• Witch Doctor
  • Philosophy
    • To better support character builds based on a specific damage type we are changing the damage type of a few select runes. This is an ongoing goal - additional changes may be made in the future to any of our classes to make damage types an interesting consideration for character building.
    • We are changing the way Fetish Sycophants works. Previously it triggered while casting. This caused it to create twice as many fetishes with certain skills such as Firebats (which trigger on-cast effects at double the normal rate), and also create fetishes even when there was no target available. We want to preserve the existing Fetish builds while allow Fetish Sycophants to be combined with all skills in the Witchdoctor arsenal. Fetish Sycophants now works with all skills and triggers on hit rather than on cast. While this means you can no longer get fetishes by simply casting at nothing, you will now get more fetishes if casting against large groups of enemies. In the case of spells other than Firebats, you will generally get more Fetishes than before. In the case of Firebats, you will get less Fetishes than before versus 1-3 targets, and more fetishes than before when facing groups of 5 or more.
    • Haunt and Locust Swarm are being changed to make the damage more consistent. The difference between getting a Critical Hit or not made these abilities too unpredictable. This is particularly important when the player has the option of reapplying the Damage over Time effect.
    • The Witchdoctor sometimes had trouble keeping up in a party situation. At the same time, we feel each class should feel unique. To this end we are redesigning Fierce Loyalty to improve the Witchdoctor's mobility in a uniquely Witchdoctor way.
  • Active Skills
    • Corpse Spiders
      • Skill Rune - Leaping Spiders
        • Damage type changed from Physical to Poison
      • Skill Rune - Medusa Spiders
        • Damage type changed from Physical to Cold
    • Firebats
      • Initial cost reduced from 225 to 150 Mana
      • Skill Rune - Dire bats
        • Weapon damage increased from 300% to 495%
      • Skill Rune - Hungry Bats
        • Weapon damage increased from 350% to 635%
      • Skill Rune - Vampire Bats
        • Now increases the initial cost from 150 to 225 Mana
    • Gargantuan
      • Skill Rune - Humongoid
        • Damage type changed from Physical to Cold
      • Skill Rune - Bruiser
        • Damage type changed from Physical to Fire
      • Skill Rune - Wrathful Protector
        • Replaced the knockback effect with a small knock up
        • Bug Fix: All Gargantuan attacks and abilities now correctly benefit from +% Elemental Damage gear
    • Haunt
      • Jump distance increased to 70 yards
      • Rather than rolling for a Critical Hit, Haunt will now calculate an average damage augmented by your Critical Hit Chance and Critical Hit Damage on application and apply that damage evenly over the duration of the entire DoT
        • Note: Since the skill can no longer deal a Critical Hit, it will no longer trigger effects that occur on Critical Hit
    • Hex
      • Skill Rune - Angry Chicken
        • Replaced the knockback effect with a small knock up
        • Now allows you to walk through enemies while transformed
      • Skill Rune - Toad of Hugeness
        • Weapon damage increased from 24% to 580% per second
        • Damage type changed from Physical to Poison
        • Will now calculate your Critical Hit Chance and Critical Hit Damage on application and divide that damage evenly over the duration of the entire DoT
          • Note: As a side effect of this change, this skill will no longer proc "on crit" effects
    • Horrify
      • Radius increased from 12 to 18 yards
      • Cooldown reduced from 16 to 12 seconds
      • Duration reduced from 4 to 3 seconds
      • Now Immobilizes enemies
      • Skill Rune - Phobia
        • Removes the Immobilize effect
    • Locust Swarm
      • Rather than rolling for a Critical Hit, Locust Swarm will now calculate an average damage augmented by your Critical Hit Chance and Critical Hit Damage on application and apply that damage evenly over the duration of the entire DoT
      • Note: Since the skill can no longer deal a Critical Hit, it will no longer trigger effects that occur on Critical Hit
    • Piranhas
      • Skill Rune - Bogadile
        • Weapon damage increased from 840% to 1100%
        • Damage type changed from Poison to Physical
    • Spirit Walk
      • Now allows you to walk through obstacles created by the Waller monster affix
    • Wall of Zombies
      • Skill Rune - Offensive Line
        • Maximum cast range increased from 24 to 28 yards
      • Skill Rune - Unrelenting Grip
        • Damage type changed from Physical to Cold
    • Summon Zombie Dogs
      • Weapon damage per bite increased from 12% to 30%
      • Bug Fix: Bite damage dealt by Zombie Dogs now correctly benefits from +% Elemental Damage gear
  • Passive Skills
    • Fetish Sycophants
      • Now procs on hit rather than on cast, and will be affected by proc coefficients
      • The chance to summon has been increased from 5% to 10% to compensate
    • Fierce Loyalty
      • Has been redesigned:
        • Now while you have a Zombie Dog, Gargantuan, or Fetish following you and are not in combat, your movement speed is increased by 30%
        • Now also allows you to have 1 additional Zombie Dog summoned at a time
    • Spirit Vessel
      • Now allows you to go through obstacles created by the Waller monster affix while you are in the Spirit Realm
    • Zombie Handler
      • Now also increases your health by 20% in addition to your Zombie Dogs and Gargantuan

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• Wizard
  • Philosophy
    • To better support character builds based on a specific damage type we are changing the damage type of a few select runes. This is an ongoing goal - additional changes may be made in the future to any of our classes to make damage types an interesting consideration for character building.
    • Wormhole is by far the most common rune choice on Teleport. While we like the functionality and frequency with which it allows you to cast Teleport, we do not like the frustration it sometimes produces: players are often left clicking wildly, feeling punished for misclicks, or increased frustration if you find yourself up against an obstacle that wastes your second and third Teleport. To improve this experience we are reducing the cooldown on Teleport to 11 seconds and changing Wormhole to only give one additional cast, but increasing the window of time you have to use your second Teleport to 3 seconds. This affords the same number of Teleport casts overall as before while allowing you to be more thoughtful and deliberate about how to use your second Teleport. With the base cooldown on Teleport coming down to 11 seconds, all runes should now be more appealing. While the effect on some runes has been reduced, this should be more than made up for by the reduced cooldown in all cases.
  • Active Skills
    • Archon
      • Skill Rune - Arcane Destruction
        • Has been renamed Combustion
      • Skill Rune - Combustion
        • Damage type changed from Arcane to Fire
        • Explosion now deals Fire damage
        • Converts all of Archon's abilities to Fire damage
      • Skill Rune - Pure Power
        • Damage type changed from Arcane to Lightning
        • Converts all of Archon's abilities to Lightning damage
      • Skill Rune - Slow Time
        • Damage type changed from Arcane to Cold
        • Converts all of Archon's abilities to Cold damage
    • Hydra
      • Skill Rune - Blazing Hydra
        • Bug Fix: Damage now properly scales with attack speed
    • Magic Weapon
      • Skill Rune - Force Weapon
        • Knockback effect has been removed
    • Meteor
      • Skill Rune - Molten Impact
        • Impact area increased from 12 to 20 yards
    • Slow Time
      • Bug Fix: Fixed an issue causing Slow Time to persist after its caster died or expired
    • Teleport
      • Cooldown reduced from 16 to 11 seconds
      • Skill Rune - Safe Passage
        • Damage reduction reduced from 27% to 25%
      • Skill Rune - Wormhole
        • Delay before the cooldown begins increased from 1 to 3 seconds
        • Maximum number of allowed teleports reduced from 3 to 2
      • Skill Rune - Reversal
        • Now also reduces the remaining cooldown to 1 second if you use Teleport to return to your original location
      • Skill Rune - Fracture
        • Decoy duration reduced from 8 to 6 seconds
      • Skill Rune - Calamity
        • Weapon damage reduced from 252% to 175%
        • Stun duration reduced from 1.5 to 1 second

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ITEMS

• Legendary potions may now be traded with other players who were present for the drop for up to 2 hours after the item is acquired
• Cinder Switch
  • The fireball proc now deals 250% weapon damage, up from a flat amount of approximately 750 damage at level 70
  • Bug Fix: Fixed an issue causing this item to ignore its internal cooldown
• Istvan's Paired Blades
  • Fixed an issue preventing The Slanderer and Little Rogue from dropping for Barbs and Monks
• Pride's Fall
  • Bug Fix: Fixed an issue causing the Pride's Fall buff to persist indefinitely while a Unity was also equipped
• Puzzle Ring
  • The goblins have been scouring Sanctuary for better loot to drop:
    • Legendary drop chance doubled
    • Rare items dropped will now always have six affixes
  • The counter for picking up normal-quality items will now persist through death, act transitions, and un-equipping the item
    • It still will not persist across game sessions
  • The goblin will now play a sound when its counter reaches max and it drops an item
• Sanguinary Vambraces
  • The Thorns damage dealt by these bracers will now benefit from your main stat damage increase at a 25% rate, as normal Thorns damage does
  • Radius reduced from 25 to 15 yards
• Spectrum
  • Bug Fix: Fixed an issue preventing this item from having a chance to drop off a certain unique monster
• Tasker and Theo
  • Will now reduce the time between Hydra attacks
• Windforce
  • Bug Fix: Fixed an issue preventing the knockback effect from activating the Strong Arm bracers Legendary Power
• Class-Specific Items
  • Barbarian
    • Might of the Earth
      • Bug Fix: Fixed an issue that allowed Earthquakes caused by this set to generate Fury via the Earthen Might passive
  • Crusader
    • Level 70 Legendary Crusader Shields now roll with higher Block Amount ranges than level 70 Magic and Rare Crusader Shields
    • This change will affect existing Legendary Crusader Shields
    • Fate of the Fell
      • Fixed an issue preventing the damage from multiple Heaven's Fury beams from stacking
    • Hellskull
      • Has been redesigned: Now grants you 10% increased damage while wielding a two-handed weapon
  • Demon Hunter
    • Danetta's Spite
      • Clones now deal 25% weapon damage instead of the attacks being a purely cosmetic effect
    • Embodiment of the Marauder
      • The frequency at which Hatred spenders are cast by your sentries has been increased; the rate varies by Hatred Spender, but overall your sentries should be using them about twice as often as before
      • Hatred spenders cast by Sentries now receive the benefits of the corresponding +% damage affixes on items
    • The Cloak of the Garwulf
      • The buff applied by this item will now display the correct number of wolves
  • Monk
    • Inna's Mantra
      • Bug Fix: Fixed an issue preventing the four-piece set bonus from working properly
  • Witch Doctor
    • Level 70 Legendary Mojos now roll with higher damage ranges than level 70 Magic and Rare Mojos
      • This change will affect existing Legendary Mojos
    • The Grin Reaper
      • Images summoned by the Grin Reaper are now more aggressive and use a larger arsenal of your skills
    • The Tall Man's Finger
      • Damage dealt by the single dog that is summoned is now significantly greater than the damage of your individual dogs combined
  • Wizard
    • Level 70 Legendary Orbs now roll with higher damage ranges than level 70 Magic and Rare Orbs
      • This change will affect existing Legendary Orbs
    • Atrophy
      • Bug Fix: Fixed an issue causing this item to have lower damage values than intended
    • Chantodo's Will
      • Bug Fix: Fixed an issue causing this item to have the incorrect number of primary and secondary stats
    • Vyr's Amazing Arcana
      • Will now choose which element to use based on the player's highest +% Elemental Damage type
      • Bug Fix: Fixed an issue preventing the set bonus from properly granting the effects of the Pure Power and Improved Archon runes
• Bug Fixes
  • +% Damage on weapons will now correctly apply to all +% elemental types of damage instead of just Physical
  • Level 70 Legendary shields now roll with higher Block Amount ranges than level 70 Magic and Rare shields
    • This change will affect existing Legendary shields
  • Fixed an issue that could sometimes cause bracers to roll a Critical Chance affix that was far below its level range during enchanting
  • Fixed an issue that allowed several auto-casted Legendary item powers to trigger proc effects
  • Fixed an issue that allowed Legendary items to roll from higher stat ranges than were appropriate for their level

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ADVENTURE MODE

• Horadric Caches
  • Now have an increased chance to drop Legendary items on Torment II - VI
• Bounty Rewards
  • Lowered rewards for Hell Rift Bounties in Act IV
• Kadala
  • Can now drop Torment only Legendary items
  • Will now always give you weapon types that your character can equip with an emphasis on class specific weapon types
  • Bug Fix: Fixed an issue causing Kadala to sometimes give common quality Crusader Shields
• Nephalem Rifts
  • Increased the number of Blood Shards that can drop from Horadric Caches
  • The number of Blood Shards dropped by Rift Guardians on Torment II - VI now increases with each level of difficulty

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CRAFTING

• Greatly increased the drop rate of Legendary crafting plans
• Plan: Reaper's Wraps
  • Malthael will now always drop the plan for Reapers' Wraps when killed at level 60 or higher if the player does not have the recipe, instead of only on the first kill
• Blacksmith
  • Legendary crafted recipes no longer require specific Common armors or weapons and instead now require Common crafting materials
• Jeweler
  • Sovereign Rings and Amulets now require Marquise gems instead of Imperial gems
  • Unsocket costs for top tier gems have been reduced
    • Flawless Imperial: 150k to 125k gold
    • Royal: 250k to 150k gold
    • Flawless Royal: 500k to 175k gold
• Mystic
  • It is no longer possible for the same affix to be randomly selected as the replacement for both of your new rolls
  • When Enchanting an item, the original affix will now be forced into the pool of possible replacement affixes
    • This will allow Legendary items with affixes that are normally unavailable on that slot to roll for that affix when Enchanting
  • Bug Fix: Fixed an issue preventing items from being properly marked as enchanted when starting the Enchanting process

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FOLLOWERS

• Followers are now available at level 1 in Adventure Mode
• Templar
  • Inspire
    • Reduced Wrath regeneration from 1.8 to 1.1 per second

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MONSTERS

• Chiltara will now spawn more often
• Reduced the clickable height of the Death Maiden
• Champions and Rares can no longer spawn with four of the following monster affixes and the frequency at which they can spawn with three has been reduced
  • Arcane Enchanted
  • Desecrator
  • Fire Chains
  • Frozen
  • Frozen Pulse
  • Molten
  • Mortar
  • Orbiter
  • Plagued
  • Poison Enchanted
  • Wormhole
• Champions and Rares can no longer spawn with both Plagued and Desecrator at the same time

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USER INTERFACE

• Friends who are currently playing Diablo III will now be sorted to the top of the friends list
• Legendary items received from Kadala will now broadcast to the clan
• Elite kill messages will now also appear in single player games
• Bug Fixes
  • Fixed an issue preventing the icons for Health Wells and Pools of Reflection from properly updating states on the minimap
  • Fixed an issue that could somtimes cause icons on the minimap to display their unusable state when players were temporarily unable to use them, when using Steed Charge for example
  • Fixed an issue that could prevent your cursor from being displayed in fullscreen mode if high dpi was detected

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BUG FIXES

• Fixed an issue that could cause lag for clan members when a large amount of Legendary items were identified via the Book of Cain
• Fixed an issue that allowed players to continue to send requests to start boss encounters after one had already been sent to the group
• Fixed an issue preventing Resource Cost Reduction from being considered when determining whether or not you have the minimum resources necessary to cast a spell
• Fixed an issue that could sometimes cause Teleport powers to prevent quests from progressing

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