Blizzard Quote [source]

Embrace the ever-changing world of Sanctuary. The Diablo III game guide has just been updated with information on the pre-expansion 2.0.1 patch. This update applies to the PC version of Diablo III and will be downloadable as soon as you open the game launcher or Battle.net desktop app. 

Class pages, skill calculators, and our Items database have been updated with the game informaiton, as well. 

We're always looking for ways to expand and improve the guide with answers to all of your questions. If there are any particular aspects of the game you're curious about, let us know in the comments!

Blizzard Quote [source]

Diablo III patch 2.0.1 is currently available for download 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 2.0.1 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 2.0.1 is live until those regions have also patched.

Diablo III Patch 2.0.1 - v.2.0.1.22044

The latest client patch notes can be found here.
Visit our Bug Report forum for a list of known issues.

Table of Contents

• General
• Bosses
• Classes
• Crafting and Artisans
• Difficulty
• Events
  • Cursed Chests
  • Infernal Machines
• Itemization
• Monsters
• Paragon
• Social Features
  • Clans
  • Communities
• User Interface 

GENERAL

• Pools of Reflection have been added to the game
  • Pools of Reflection provide a 25% bonus to experience
  • This bonus persists until you reach a set amount of bonus experience (equal to approximately 10% of the current amount of Paragon experience needed to reach the next Paragon level) or your character dies
  • Gathering additional Pools of Reflection bonuses increases the amount of total experience bonus a character can receive until character death, stacking up to 10 times
  • This experience bonus persists on logout
• Nephalem Glory has been added to the game
  • Occasionally during battle, monsters will drop Power Globes when damaged or killed
  • Power Globes grant the Nephalem Glory buff, which causes players to deal additional damage in the form of golden lightning bolts and increases their movement speed for a short time
  • This buff can stack up to three times
• New hero stats have been added to the game
  • These include Toughness, Healing, Splash Damage, Cooldown Reduction, and Resource Cost Reduction
  • Life Steal has been redesigned and is now less effective at higher character levels
    • At level 60, Life Steal is reduced to 10% effectiveness
• Players now have the ability to resurrect in multiple places when they die in Normal (non-Hardcore) games
  • You may choose to either resurrect at your body, in town, or at the last checkpoint you encountered
  • Players may not resurrect at their body during a Boss encounter
  • Players may only resurrect at their body a maximum of three times in a row
• Player hit boxes have been adjusted to more closely represent character models
  • Both male and female models of the same class share the same size hit box
• Followers now automatically level with characters
• Quests now occasionally grant item rewards when completed during the leveling process
• Gold can no longer be traded
• Graphics engine has been updated to support reflections
  • Reflections can be turned on in the Options > Video menu
  • Note: This setting is not recommended for players running minimum system specifications

BOSSES

• Many bosses have had their mechanics revisted and retuned
  • The following bosses have received the largest changes to their encounters:
    • Maghda
    • Siegebreaker
    • Azmodan
    • Iskatu
  • In addition, the enrage timers for the following Bosses will only be enabled in Torment I and above:
    • The Butcher
    • Zoltun Kulle
    • Belial
    • Ghom
    • Siegebreaker
    • Rakanoth

CLASSES

• All classes have undergone significant revision. Additional details and patch notes will be available in the near future. In the meantime, we encourage you to log in and explore the new changes for yourself!

CRAFTING AND ARTISANS

• Crafting has received several quality of life changes
  • Crafting materials have been condensed into two item level tiers: 1-60 and 60-70
    • This change is to reduce the amount of stash space consumed by crafting materials and simply older crafting recipes
    • All crafting materials currently in character inventories and stash have been converted accordingly
  • All crafted items will now roll with stats appropriate to the character crafting them, using the Loot 2.0 Smart Drop system
    • Please note that items designed to roll specific stats, such as the Archon Armor patterns, are exempt from this system
  • Items purchased from vendors are now flagged as such, and cannot be salvaged

DIFFICULTY

• The difficulty system has been completely revised
  • Nightmare, Hell, and Inferno modes have been removed
  • Difficulty is now dynamic and monsters will level up with your characters
  • There are now five difficulty settings to choose from: Normal, Hard, Expert, Master, and Torment (1-6)
    • Normal, Hard, and Expert are immediately available
    • Master unlocks upon completing Act IV
    • Torment unlocks upon reaching level 60
    • Torment level also includes a difficulty slider, offering an additional six adjustments with increasing rewards and more powerful monsters
    • Each level offers new bonuses and rewards, visible in the difficulty selection menu
  • You can now lower your difficulty setting in-game
    • However, increasing your difficulty still requires exiting your current game
    • This option is disabled in Hardcore mode
  • To account for these changes, monster density has been adjusted across all Acts

EVENTS

• Cursed Objects
  • Chests and Shrines around Sanctuary now have a chance to be cursed, starting an event once they are inspected
  • Like other events, completing a Cursed Chest or Shrine provides a small gold and experience reward, as well as either a Radiant Chest or a random Shrine buff
  • These events offer a variety of challenges, including endless monster waves, timed events, and potentially spawning bosses out in the open world
• Infernal Machines
  • Torment level difficulty is now required to use Infernal Machines

ITEMIZATION (LOOT 2.0)

• Itemization has undergone a major overhaul:
  • Legendary and Set items are now Bind on Account
    • Players in multiplayer games may trade Legendaries and Set Items they find with others who were present for the drop for up to 2 hours after the item is acquired
  • The Smart Drop system has been implemented
    • All items that drop have a chance to roll as "Smart Loot"
    • Smart Loot items roll intelligently based on the character being played (example: A Wizard is more likely to find items with Intelligence or bonuses to Wizard skills than a Barbarian)
    • Class specific items will no longer roll stats inappropriate to their class (example: Intelligence will no longer appear on Mighty Weapons or Belts)
  • New item affixes have been added to the game
    • This include Splash Damage, Cooldown Reduction, Resource Cost Reduction, +% damage to Physical damage skills, and specific Class Skill Bonuses
  • Item properties have been separated into two categories: Primary and Secondary
    • Primary Stats include: Strength, Dexterity, Intelligence, Vitality, Critical Hit Damage, Critical Hit Chance, Attack Speed, Life per Second, Armor, +% Life, Bonus Damage to Elites, Bleed Damage, All Resistance, Sockets, and all new affixes listed above
    • Secondary Stats include: Gold Find, Thorns, Bonus Experience per Monster Kill, Chance for (Fear, Stun, Blind, Freeze, Chill, Slow, Immobilize and Knockback), Ignore Durability Loss, Bonus Healing to Health Globes and Potions, Bonus Pickup Radius, Single Resist, Life After Kill, and Level Requirement Reduction
    • This is to prevent stats that directly and indirectly increase character power from competing with one another
  • Stat ranges on items have been narrowed significantly (example: instead of an item having a stat range of 1-200 Strength, its range might now be something like 140-200)
  • Legendary powers now roll in a range, instead of a static amount
    • Example: The Legendary Spirit Stone “The Laws of Seph” has the legendary affix “Using Blinding Flash restores [75-100] spirit”
  • Players can now view the stat ranges of items by pressing and holding CTRL while an item's tooltip is open
  • All Legendary items have been reworked with one or all of the above points in mind
  • Potions have been condensed to a single type; they now provide 60% of your total health when consumed
    • All Potions currently in character inventories or stashes will be converted to the new Potion type

MONSTERS

• Monster affixes have been revisited and retuned
  • Arcane Enchanted
    • Spawn effect now shows which direction it will start rotating
  • Desecrator
    • Damage now begins low, but quickly ramps up to its maximum damage
  • Frozen
    • Increased the number of Frozen crystals spawned by monsters with this affix
    • Frozen no longer increases how many crystals are spawned based on the number of players in the game
    • Frozen crystals now deal area of effect damage over time to players as they build up to their explosion
  • Jailer
    • Now does a small amount of damage when applied to the player
  • Vortex
    • Now does a small amount of damage when applied to the player
  • Mortar
    • Now has an outer impact area that does less damage than the center of impact
    • Now detonates if they vertically hit a wall
  • Plagued
    • Monsters with this affix now sometimes drop a pool under players as well as under themselves
  • Reflects Damage
    • No longer reflects a portion of incoming damage
    • Now reflects a fixed amount of damage per attack
  • Elite and Champion monsters now have five new possible affixes
    • Frozen Pulse: A shard of ice follows targets around before freezing in place and pulsing cold damage in a small area
    • Orbiter: A nexus of electrical energy appears, surrounded by additional balls of lightning that orbit in a large area
    • Poison Enchanted: Summons globules of poison matter that spread in a cross pattern, dealing damage to those caught in their wake
    • Thunderstorm: A powerful bolt of lightning strikes the ground, emanating a small wave of electrical energy
    • Wormhole: A pair of portals appears, dealing damage as it tears unfortunate targets from their location and transports them elsewhere
• Monster density has been revisited
  • Density has been retuned around the new difficulty system
  • Elite and Champion packs can now spawn in a larger variation of pack sizes
• Wasp projectiles can now be dodged and blocked

PARAGON (PARAGON 2.0)

• The Paragon leveling system has been completely revamped
  • There is no longer a cap on the number of Paragon levels a player can gain
  • Paragon levels are now account-wide and shared across all characters
    • Note that Paragon levels are tracked independently between Hardcore and Normal modes
  • Players no longer gain static bonuses upon achieving Paragon Levels and bonuses currently earned by players have been removed
  • Players now earn Paragon points each level to spend in one of four separate categories: Core, Offense, Defense, and Utility
    • Players with existing Paragon levels have been granted the appropriate number of points to distribute amongst these categories
  • With these changes in mind, the Paragon leveling curve has been updated
  • Note that all Paragon experience earned across all characters prior to this patch has been totaled and recalculated into your new account-wide Paragon level
    • Paragon points can be allocated by clicking the Paragon button in the Character Paper Doll and Inventory screen (Default Hotkey C)

SOCIAL FEATURES

• Clans and Communities have been added to the game
  • Clans
    • Anyone may create a Clan, and doing so gives access to the Clan window (default hotkey N)
    • Joining or creating a clan displays your clan tag next to your name
    • Clan members can view the Members Roster, a private chat channel, and a News & Info tab for Clan affairs and information in the Clan window
    • Clans support up to 120 members and require an invitation to join
    • Players may only be a member of one Clan at a time
  • Communities
    • Anyone may create a Community, and can view their Community details in the Social tab (default hotkey SHIFT + O)
    • Community members have access to their Members Roster, a dedicated chat channel, and a News & Info tab for sharing stories and Community information
    • Players may join any number of Communities they wish
    • Communities do not have a membership limit; however, if the number of members exceeds 100, only Officers and above will be displayed in the Members Roster
    • Communities can be designated as Private or Public; Private Communities require invitation to join
    • Communities are organized by categories, including but not limited to Classes, Regional, and Game Type

USER INTERFACE

• Several quality of life changes have been applied to the User Interface
  • The Difficulty and Game Creation menus have been completely redone
  • The in-game Menu has been revised
  • The waypoint list has been replaced with a waypoint map
  • Skill tooltips now show damage type if Advanced Tooltips are enabled
  • Several new social options have been added to support Clans and Communities
    • These can be accessed in the Options > Gameplay menu
  • New chat colors associated with Clans and Communities have been added
  • There is now an option to enable icons for dropped items instead of text
    • This can be enabled in the Options > Gameplay menu
  • There is now an option to automatically skip all cut scenes
    • This can be enabled in the Options > Gameplay menu
  • Item labels for Gold piles are no longer displayed
    • This is to reduce visual clutter; values are still displayed when gold is picked up

Back to Top

If you are experiencing technical issues with the patching process, connecting to Battle.net after installing the patch, or errors while playing a newly-patched game, please visit our support site or post in the Technical Support forum for assistance.

Blizzard Quote [source]

Behold! Two epic new bonus items have just been spotted in the mortal realms, both of which will be granted in the future to anyone who pre-purchases the Reaper of Souls™ expansion digitally on Battle.net, or anyone who redeems a Reaper of Souls retail game key on or before March 31, 2014. 

Check them out below:

Wings of Valor: Summon the radiant wings of the Archangel of Valor for your characters in Diablo III.

Valla the Demon Hunter: Unlock Valla the Demon Hunter in Heroes of the Storm—our upcoming free-to-play online team brawler featuring iconic Blizzard characters, fast-paced combat, and epic battlegrounds. 

If you've already digitally pre-purchased the Reaper of Souls expansion, either as the standard edition or the Digital Deluxe Edition, then you're all set! These bonus items will be granted to your Battle.net account as follows:

• The Wings of Valor will be automatically sent to your existing and any newly created Diablo III characters via an in-game notification starting March 20, 2014.
• Valla the Demon Hunter will be available once Heroes of the Storm has been officially released. Note that Heroes of the Storm is still deep in development and does not have an announced release date, but you can stay tuned to the official game site for future updates. Note also that pre-purchasing Reaper of Souls does not guarantee a spot in the eventual Heroes of the Storm alpha or beta tests.

If you pre-order Reaper of Souls at a retail store—either a physical standard edition or physical Collector's Edition—be sure to redeem your Reaper of Souls game key via your Battle.net account on or before 11:59 PM PST on March 31, 2014. If you redeem your game key after that date, your pre-order loot will be consumed by the fires of the Burning Hells and lost forever. While you have six days from the time the expansion launches on March 25 to the time you must enter your code, to be safe, you should secure your preorder today and be ready to input your game key on launch day.

For more information on the upcoming March 25 launch of Reaper of Souls, be sure to check out the official expansion website, and keep your demon-weary eyes glued to www.diablo3.com for the latest news on the game.

Until then, slay well, Nephalem.

- The Diablo III Team

Blizzard Quote [source]

In preparation for the launch of patch 2.0.1, the Reaper of Souls™ Beta and Patch 2.0.1 PTR servers will be brought offline this evening at 5:00 p.m. PT. At that time, players will no longer be able to log in to the Beta or PTR client, all Beta and PTR accounts (including character information) will be reset, and both our Beta forums and PTR forums will be marked as read-only.

We'd like to thank everyone who has participated in the Reaper of Souls Beta and Patch 2.0.1 PTR. You've done an amazing job of testing, and we greatly appreciate all of the feedback you provided during this critical phase of development.

We look forward to releasing patch 2.0.1 to public shortly and encourage everyone to stay tuned to this website for exciting news and updates regarding the upcoming launch of Reaper of Souls!

Blizzard Quote [source]

Patch 2.0.1 will introduce our updated Paragon leveling system (often referred to as "Paragon 2.0"), adding even more end-game character advancement and replayability. This update will affect all Diablo III accounts across all regions as the patch is implemented, and is currently available for testing on the Patch 2.0.1 PTR and Reaper of Souls Closed Beta.

For those of you who haven't yet experimented with this new system, here's a first look.

What's Changing?

The initial implementation of the Paragon system introduced in patch 1.0.4 was designed to provide players with additional end-game progression, offering bonuses for experience gained past the standard level cap. This system was created to accompany and complement the more innate item-based progression in Diablo III, which is all about finding powerful artifacts and putting them to use against the demonic legions of the Burning Hells.

While the original version of the Paragon leveling system achieved its many goals, with time players would max out at level 100 and no longer feel rewarded for vanquishing evil. With patch 2.0.1, we're making three big changes to the Paragon system that are aimed at giving you greater control over your hero, promoting variety in build options, and offering more character customization than ever before.

 Change #1: Goodbye Level Cap

The first change we’re making with Paragon 2.0 is removing the level cap, so you will always be able to earn Paragon experience once you've reached max level. Play as much as you like—you'll always be able to earn more Paragon levels!

 Change #2: Shared Paragon Levels

The second change is that Paragon levels are now account-wide per game mode (i.e. Normal and Hardcore). All Normal heroes on an account will share a Paragon level. Similarly, all Hardcore heroes on an account will share a Paragon level. After patch 2.0.1 goes live, any Paragon experience you gain on your Normal or Hardcore heroees will contribute to your account's Normal Shared Paragon level or Hardcore Shared Paragon level, respectively.

We made this change so players wouldn't feel obligated to continue playing the same hero over and over again in order to maximize their farming efficiency. We want players to have fun with the game, to experiment with different classes, and to feel rewarded for their time investment, regardless of what hero they’re playing. We also want everyone to fully enjoy the new content coming in Reaper of Souls—including the Crusader class—without feeling as though they’ve "wasted Paragon levels" on a previous hero.

While only max-level heroes can earn shared Paragon experience and contribute to your account's shared Paragon level, all heroes (regardless of level) will be eligible to receive Paragon Points—our third major change to the Paragon leveling system.

As noted, the third change is that the rewards for gaining Paragon levels have drastically changed. In Patch 2.0.1, the static Magic Find, Gold Find, and class stat bonuses awarded for each Paragon level are being replaced by spendable Paragon Points.

In the new system, whenever you gain a Paragon level, you will receive a Paragon Point to allocate at your discretion. Paragon Points are earned in four separate categories: Core, Offense, Defense, and Utility, and the Paragon level you earn will determine the category in which that Paragon Point can be spent. Paragon level 1 will give you a point to spend in a Core stat, Paragon level 2 will give you a point in Offense, Paragon level 3 will give you a point to spend in Defense, and Paragon level 4 will give you a point to spend in Utility. Paragon Point progression for all future levels will follow this same pattern (sometimes referred to as round-robin).

In addition, each category also four different attributes. Spending points in these attributes will provide specific bonuses for your hero.

Core points can be spent on your class's primary stat, Vitality, Movement Speed, or bonus Class Resource.

Offensive points focus on increasing your damage output and efficiency, and include Attack Speed, Cooldown Reduction, Critical Hit Chance, and Critical Hit Damage.

Defensive points include stats that help improve your survivability. Options include bonus Life percentage, bonus Armor, Resist All, and Life Regeneration.

Utility points include more specialized stats that allow players to refine their builds. These points can be spent on boons like Area Damage, Resource Cost Reduction, Life on Hit, and Gold Find.

At present, all attributes in each category other than core stats (Strength, Intelligence, Dexterity, and Vitality) have a cap on the number of points that can be allocated to them, which also means there is a cap to the total number of Paragon Points you can accumulate in three of the four categories. By the time you reach Paragon 800, you will have maxed the number of points that can be allocated to the Offensive, Defensive, and Utility categories and all future Paragon levels you earn going forward will grant you a Paragon Point in the Core stat category instead.

• The new Paragon system is account-wide; all heroes will benefit from the gained bonuses, including your newly created characters!
• Your account's Paragon Point pool is not shared between your heroes. Instead, heroes on your account will each get their own set of Paragon Points to spend independently (e.g. you can spend your Paragon Points differently for each hero). To provide an example, if your account's Normal Shared Paragon level is 100, all Normal heroes on your account will each get 100 Paragon Points to distribute as you see fit.
• All heroes will be able to contribute to Shared Paragon levels equally. There are no bonuses or burdens for Paragon leveling multiple heroes of the same class.
• Be sure to experiment! You can reset your Paragon Points at any time without having to pay a single gold coin. Respecs occur on the hero level, not the account level, so respeccing on one hero will not reset your Paragon Points on other heroes.

To provide an example, here's a new level 1 hero. This hero will begin with a Shared Paragon level of 127 as well as 127 Paragon Points, which can be allocated at will to the four different categories.

Transitioning to the New System

Heroes who have gained Paragon experience under the old system will transition seamlessly to the new system. When Paragon 2.0 goes live with patch 2.0.1, we'll being adding up all the Paragon experience on each of your heroes and then using that combined total (the total amount of Paragon experience you have, not the total number of Paragon levels) to determine your Shared Paragon level. Again, this will be broken down by game type—Normal and Hardcore.

Players can distribute their earned points through the Paragon interface, accessed by clicking the "Paragon" button located in your hero's character sheet.

• Please note that legacy Paragon levels will not convert to Paragon 2.0 levels on a one-to-one ratio, and that the number of Paragon levels is not being totaled, just the amount of Paragon experience.
• The Paragon experience curve has changed with patch 2.0.1 as well. With the transition to Paragon 2.0, your Shared Paragon level will be at least as high as the highest Paragon level hero on your account.
• We have also decided that the valiant deeds of Hardcore heroes who died beyond level 60 deserve commemoration. Dead Hardcore heroes will contribute their cumulated Paragon experience to an account's Hardcore Shared Paragon level total.
• After Paragon 2.0 goes live, if you are level 60 and do not have the Reaper of Souls enabled on your account, you will continue to earn Paragon experience in the new system. This is because you are still technically at the level cap. However, if you are level 60 and decide to enable the expansion on your account, you will stop earning Paragon experience. This is because the expansion increases the level cap to 70. Once you reach level 70, you will start to accrue Paragon experience again from where you left off. (So, basically: Only max-level characters will be able to earn Paragon experience. If you don't have the expansion, max-level = 60. If you have the expansion, max-level = 70.)
• Under Paragon 2.0, if a character dies or is deleted, the amount of Paragon experience it contributed to your Shared Paragon level will not be lost. This is a benefit of having Paragon experience stored at the account level, rather than at the character level.
• Lastly, you will keep the portraits you have already earned in the first version of the Paragon system.

Try Paragon 2.0 on the PTR

You can experience the new Paragon system coming in patch 2.0.1 on the PTR. Check out how your heroes feel with new stats, play around with different stat builds by spending Paragon Points, and check out the new Paragon progression curve. Once you’ve tried it out, visit the PTR forums to leave your feedback—we'd love to hear what you think!