1.0.3 Coming Changes

[Quark]

Stolen from my Reader feed thanks to websense ...

Legendaries

Drop rates have changed in 1.0.3 The highest ilvl can drop in act 1 inferno but at a lower rate than act 3 and 4. You can view the table in the post to see all the percents.
We won't be seeing the Legendaries stats change this patch however when they are done high level Legendaries should be flat out better than blue items.

Nephalem Valor

With 5 stacks of NV bosses will now only drop 1 "guaranteed" rare instead of 2. (They will still have a high chance to drop more just like before, just one less "guaranteed" one.
Elite packs will now drop a bonus guaranteed rare when you have full stacks of NV

Group Play

Monsters will not longer have bonus damage per additional player in coop games.

Inferno Balancing

Act 1 feels just how they want it.
Getting to Act 2 is to large of a step, if a barb and monk can clear Act 1 with an offensive build and murder everything, they should be able to switch to a defensive build and do okay in Act 2
Act 2,3 and 4 will have have monster health and damage adjusted to make them fit smoothly.

Deaths and Repair Costs

Repair costs at 60 are almost not noticable, and due to this they see a lot of people simply "graveyard zerging" enemies.
They had a few ideas on how to discourage this, ultimately they will be increases repair costs between x4 and x6 their current values.

Attack Speed

Attack speed modifier will now properly work on all items.
Players currently feel that Attack Speed is one of the "required" stats, and blizzard does not want this. They have two ideas to fix this and are looking for feedback on them. They are currently leaning toward the first idea.
Reduced how much attack speed can be found on an item
add a hidden modifier that basically adds diminishing returns on attack speed.

Gems

As stated before, both the Blacksmith and the Jeweler will become a little cheaper.
There is a table in the post below showing you the new cost for crafting the first 8 tiers of gems. (They only require two of each gem type now, along with reduced gold cost)

Class Balancing

Patch 1.0.3 will not be focused on class balancing. (there will be a small number of skill changes)
Patch 1.1 will be the patch for most class tweaks which will have focus on punching build diversity up a few more notches

Sauce:
http://www.diablofans.com/topic/48474-pa...3-preview/

All looks to be pretty strong changes. More reason to roll the NV buff for awhile, less of a jump between 1->2 in Inferno, and doesn't kill melee just by being in coop. Kind of glad my IAS set didn't really get started, though. Guess I'll stick with the slow 2H even longer now (seriously, is Wizard just the opposite of everything else? Signature spells are just too weak).

[FoxBat]

Removing the coop damage buff is probably a bigger nerf on Inferno than whatever smoothing thing they are doing. I don't feel good about that, but some boss abilities are really out of control as it is, so it's probably the best thing for now.

[Quark]

No, it's really really necessary. Mobs HP still increases more than 100% per player, so you still have to be more efficient as a group than just two people playing in the same game, and people were quickly coming to the conclusion that solo > coop because otherwise you just can't handle the incoming damage. When someone has a full friends list and they're all in their own solo Inferno game, you know there's a problem.

[Concillian]

Removing the coop damage buff is probably a bigger nerf on Inferno than whatever smoothing thing they are doing. I don't feel good about that, but some boss abilities are really out of control as it is, so it's probably the best thing for now.

Well, the issue is you try it solo as melee and say "hey, this is working, let me group with 3 other people" ... then end up having to cower in the corner because you'll completely splat otherwise.

So you say, "screw this... I'll just play by myself in my own game."

When that's happening in a game that's supposed to be multiplayer, there is a design problem... so something needed to change.

[ViralSpiral]

Players currently feel that Attack Speed is one of the "required" stats, and blizzard does not want this. They have two ideas to fix this and are looking for feedback on them. They are currently leaning toward the first idea.
Reduced how much attack speed can be found on an item
add a hidden modifier that basically adds diminishing returns on attack speed.

I guess the idea of just increasing the base attack speed so more IAS isn't considered "required" didn't occur to them?

[BellaStrega]

These look like good changes, although the repair cost increase worries me a bit. Not because I want to graveyard zerg, but because I remember raiding in WoW and spending hundreds of gold on repairs on progression raids. Also, I saw someone talking about gearing up for gold find and gold/health globe radius and farming nightmare at a higher efficience than hell or inferno, and if the costs end up too high, this might be even more appealing.

That said, I think repair costs are too low and there are simply not enough gold sinks in the game, which is leading to a lot of inflation.

[FoxBat]

I'm not disputing that there isn't an issue with the current scaling, but this might be going to far in the other direction. Most elites are tough enough that you can't just DPS them down before they swing at you, so you need to be mitigating/kiting enough that you aren't in a health attrition situation. In that case more health doesn't make these battles any harder really, just longer. (Unless you are running up against enrage.) Meanwhile you've got all the inherent synergies of co-op making things much easier.

I guess the idea of just increasing the base attack speed so more IAS isn't considered "required" didn't occur to them?

For many builds, there's not a point at which more IAS isn't awesome. Can't ever have enough life on hit and spirit gen for a monk for example.

[Tuftears]

I think what they need to do for act 2 is more fixing the mobs that are unfair-- in particular, you can't pop those snakes out of stealth before they get close enough to swing, either via traps or ranged/AOE damage. That'd probably remove a huge part of the gap that act 2 constitutes.

Hopefully they'll tinker with some of the boss mods, too. Maybe prevent invuln from spawning on at least some mobs, or as I've seen suggested, make invuln minions ethereal so you and your attacks can pass through them.

[Dozer]

The best suggestion I've seen is to just scrap Invulnerable Minions and let Rare bosses/minions get Health Link like Champ Packs.

[RiotInferno]

Conspiracy: Higher repair rates = Gold sink = Less gold to spend at AH = Gotta buy from the RMAH.

I don't know if increased repair rates make a lot of sense, though. Increased drop rates, yes please.

[Quark]

Conspiracy: Higher repair rates = Gold sink = Less gold to spend at AH = Gotta buy from the RMAH.

I don't know if increased repair rates make a lot of sense, though. Increased drop rates, yes please.

Sure it does. I spent a night basically graveyard zerging a boss and came out with a profit. That's just flat out wrong.

[RiotInferno]

Conspiracy: Higher repair rates = Gold sink = Less gold to spend at AH = Gotta buy from the RMAH.

I don't know if increased repair rates make a lot of sense, though. Increased drop rates, yes please.

Sure it does. I spent a night basically graveyard zerging a boss and came out with a profit. That's just flat out wrong.

Point taken.

[Athenau]

I like everything but the attack speed changes. Nerfing powerful affixes into homogeneity is not what this game needs. The itemization is bland enough as it is. Also, this hurts classes that need to hit to build up their resource (barbs, monks).

[Roland]

The best suggestion I've seen is to just scrap Invulnerable Minions and let Rare bosses/minions get Health Link like Champ Packs.

Health link is a joke. All it means is if you focus-fire one mob down slowly enough you essentially kill the whole pack. Mind, I'm not against the ability - as a Demon Hunter I enjoy it, actually - but let's not kid ourselves into thinking it truly adds any challenge. Maybe melee characters fare a bit worse, but I doubt that.

[FireIceTalon]

I really think the AH needs some regulation, the inflation is out of control. Just like in real life, we got a few wealthy dikheads that think money (or gold in this case) grows on trees and they can charge w/e they want.

I welcome most of these changes, but I think increasing the repair costs is only going to make people skip the harder elite/champ packs even more, unless Blizz brings the AH prices under control somehow. Farming Inferno for gold is already a tedious waste of time really, this will just make it more so. Not a good decision IMO. Why does Blizz always have to make it more difficult or put conditions on things in the rare cases they make changes that favor the gamer? Why cant they swallow their pride and admit perhaps their design or at least a particular mechanic is flawed? It's a 'holier than thou' attitude, and it needs to go.

[Mavfin]

I really think the AH needs some regulation, the inflation is out of control. Just like in real life, we got a few wealthy dikheads that think money (or gold in this case) grows on trees and they can charge w/e they want.

The AH will self-regulate. Blizzard doesn't need to step in unless someone's doing something obviously exploitative, and frankly, the ten-slot rule makes those things almost impossible to do in D3's AH, vs the WoW one where you could do stuff like that.

As in WoW, the gold AH has a few very simple rules:

1) If it sells, it wasn't overpriced. If it's overpriced, it won't sell, and that's a wasted slot for the seller in D3's AH.
2) If you don't like the price, farm it yourself
3) If you don't like someone undercutting you, fine, buy their stuff and reprice it, assuming their risk. There's no divine right to make X profit.

By rule 1, yes, they *can* charge whatever they want. The market will figure it out after a while, and when the RMAH comes up, it'll go differently, too.

[Bolty]

In that case more health doesn't make these battles any harder really, just longer. (Unless you are running up against enrage.) Meanwhile you've got all the inherent synergies of co-op making things much easier.

Agreed - the length of a battle usually doesn't determine anything to me (as a melee class). Either I can survive the damage, meaning I can go toe-to-toe with the mobs, or I can't, meaning I'm running around like a chicken with its head cut off. Under the current system, it's far far easier for me to play solo than it is with a group, though. I would find myself wincing if that 3rd or 4th player joined my game, because suddenly I'd find myself much less viable as a contributor to my group. And I like playing in groups. With the new system, a 2nd, 3rd, or 4th player in my group means 2x, 3x, or 4x the DPS, which when balanced against the increased mob health, should balance out. Should.

Health link is a joke. All it means is if you focus-fire one mob down slowly enough you essentially kill the whole pack. Mind, I'm not against the ability - as a Demon Hunter I enjoy it, actually - but let's not kid ourselves into thinking it truly adds any challenge. Maybe melee characters fare a bit worse, but I doubt that.

I can tell you play a ranged class.

When a champ pack is sighted, my goal as a Barbarian is to blow every cooldown I have to try to kill one member of that pack as quickly as possible. Once the number of champions gets reduced, the fight becomes substantially easier. Health Link prevents that, and guarantees that all 3 (or 4) members of the pack will be beating on me for the entire encounter. It's just another of the myriad of "screw you melee" boss abilities out there, which I loathe, just as you would loathe Vortex and Mortar. I laugh at Mortar. Vortex is an issue for melee only if it's combined with Freeze or Arcane.

[FireIceTalon]

I had one annoying, if rather funny combo, last night when I was playing my Barb in Act 2 of Nightmare: Freeze and Nightmarish. they would nightmare my Barb to make him run away, then try to freeze me afterward so they could run in and wail on me. It was kind of annoying, but i got a few laughs out of it too. Its just funny to see a huge barbarian run away from some little Fallens, heh. Of course, I took the bastards down w/o ever seriously being threatened, but their scare then freeze and run in tactics made the fight last longer than it should have.

[Lissa]

Removing the coop damage buff is probably a bigger nerf on Inferno than whatever smoothing thing they are doing. I don't feel good about that, but some boss abilities are really out of control as it is, so it's probably the best thing for now.

Well, the issue is you try it solo as melee and say "hey, this is working, let me group with 3 other people" ... then end up having to cower in the corner because you'll completely splat otherwise.

So you say, "screw this... I'll just play by myself in my own game."

When that's happening in a game that's supposed to be multiplayer, there is a design problem... so something needed to change.

It's not just melee. As Quark, Bolty, and TD can attest to, if something gets to me, I tend to explode even with 50% DR and 32k health unless I get a lucky dodge. And with Vault not making you immune while vaulting, you can vault through something to get range and end up getting hit mid move and die when you finish the vault.

[MongoJerry]

I really think the AH needs some regulation, the inflation is out of control. Just like in real life, we got a few wealthy dikheads that think money (or gold in this case) grows on trees and they can charge w/e they want.

I welcome most of these changes, but I think increasing the repair costs is only going to make people skip the harder elite/champ packs even more, unless Blizz brings the AH prices under control somehow. Farming Inferno for gold is already a tedious waste of time really, this will just make it more so. Not a good decision IMO. Why does Blizz always have to make it more difficult or put conditions on things in the rare cases they make changes that favor the gamer? Why cant they swallow their pride and admit perhaps their design or at least a particular mechanic is flawed? It's a 'holier than thou' attitude, and it needs to go.

RedRadical, take the time to read your two paragraphs and notice the contradiction. In the first paragraph, you rail against inflation. In the second, you rail against a gold sink that would help to hinder inflation.