Just a quick reference guide for those wondering what to expect going into the patch scheduled for May 14th, 10 AM PST. Pre-Download usually starts 1 hour before launch.
This list does not include everything and should only serve as a summary of the bigger changes coming. Please refer to the Official Patch Notes for more details.
Update: I plan to casually stream at night with the fiancé joining me. We’ll be playing a pair of Necros so feel free to stop by and chat, ask question, whatever.
Twitch Name: Iggi_101
Stream time: 7:00 PM PDT to 9:00 PM PDT
-NEW SYSTEMS-
(Applies To Both Eternal & Seasonal Realms)
Tempering
Find and learn Tempering Manuals to add Affixes to your gear via the Blacksmith. There are six categories for tempering: Weapon, Offensive, Defensive, Utility, Mobility, and Resource. Each category has multiple manuals and each manual has multiple affixes assigned to them. When tempering you will receive 1 of these affixes at random, and you can choose to reroll these affixes up to a limited amount per item.
Additional Details
- Tempering Manuals can be found anywhere in the game and will come in Magical, Rare, and Legendary tiers.
- You can open your Collections Menu (Y by default on PC), open the Codex of Power and a new tab for Tempering Recipes will be there with a full list, regardless if you’ve found them or not.
- You can open your Collections Menu (Y by default on PC), open the Codex of Power and a new tab for Tempering Recipes will be there with a full list, regardless if you’ve found them or not.
- You will be able to add 1 Tempered Affix to Normal and Sacred items, and 2 Tempered Affixes to Ancestral items. Tempering an Affix will bind the item to your account.
- Each Item is assigned 2 different Tempering Categories, except for Amulets that can choose up to 2 out of 5 different Categories (Weapon Category obviously cannot be chosen).
- You will be able to reroll Tempered Affixes a maximum of 3 times for Normal and Sacred items, and 5 times for Ancestral items.
- Note: You will not be able to keep a previous tempered affix upon reroll, unlike with enchanting.
- Note: You will not be able to keep a previous tempered affix upon reroll, unlike with enchanting.
- PTR Change: Tempering Affix Radius Increase - The increase obtained through these affixes for various skills and effects, such as Dust Devils or Bone Spirit, is now capped at 100%.
Masterworking
After Tempering an Ancestral item fully, and using the new crafting materials found from The Pits, you can upgrade your gear using Masterworking at the Blacksmith. This process improves all affixes on an item by a percentage, and every 4th upgrade will boost one affix at random by an additional 25%. Once fully upgraded this process can be reset, but any materials used will not be refunded.
Additional Details
- You are only able to apply Masterworking to an Ancestral Rare or Legendary item that is fully Tempered (2 tempered affixes).
- Masterworking Milestone Bonuses are saved to the Affix Slot, so if you change an Affix that had a milestone bonus, the new affix will also receive this bonus.
- Obducite - Used for upgrading an item from levels 1 through 4 - Found in Pit Tiers 1-29
- Ingolith - Used for upgrading an item from levels 5 through 8 - Found in Pit Tiers 30-59
- Neathiron - Used for upgrading an item from 9 through 12 - Found in Pit Tiers 60+
- You will be able to convert crafting materials used to a lower tier from the Alchemist. Ex. Neathiron into Ingolith, Ingolith into Obducite.
- PTR Change: More options to transmute more materials at a time, temporary fix until a more permanent solution is found.
- PTR Change: More options to transmute more materials at a time, temporary fix until a more permanent solution is found.
- Once an affix receives a milestone boost it will appear in Blue text on the item, if this happens twice it will turn Yellow, and a third time will turn it Orange.
Helltides
As you fight through the Helltides, you will generate Threat. As this increases you will be ambushed by enemies until the meter caps and a Hellborn will come for you, upon defeating this foe your meter will reset.
Accursed Rituals can now be found that require Baneful Hearts obtained by opening Tortured Gifts. Upon activation of the ritual, waves of enemies will spawn which will end with the arrival of the formidable Blood Maiden.
Additional Details
- Accursed Rituals will be noted by a Demon’s Head Symbol with 2 horns, of differing sizes, on the map. Once activated this symbol will pulse on the map.
- 3 Baneful Hearts are required for the Accursed Rituals, more rewards are given for those who donate Baneful Hearts.
- Unconfirmed - Baneful Hearts persisted beyond Helltides during the PTR, meaning if you had 2 Hearts left over from one Helltide, you could use them in another Helltide. This may or may not be the case when the patch hits.
- Some people are noting Hearts AND cinder shards persisting between helltides since the patch hit. This may not be intentional so just a heads up.
- Some people are noting Hearts AND cinder shards persisting between helltides since the patch hit. This may not be intentional so just a heads up.
- If you die, not only do you still lose half of your shards, you will also lose all of your Threat as well.
Greater Affixes
Appearing only on Ancestral Legendary and Unique Items, Greater Affixes are 1.5x more powerful versions of normal affixes, and they will always be the max roll possible. These can be further increased through the Masterworking system. You cannot enchant an affix into a Greater Affix, these can only be found on a dropped or gambled item.
Additional Details
- Uber Uniques created from Resplendent Sparks can roll with Greater Affixes.
- Attempting to Enchant a Greater Affix into another affix will get rid of the Greater Affix bonus, even if you decide not to replace the Affix by choosing the option to keep it.
- Greater Affixed items will have a
symbol next to their name when dropped, and have a special icon in your inventory.
New Bosses
The Maiden of Anguish, Andariel has returned, and has the same Uber Unique drop rate as her twin bother Duriel. She has a mix of Shadow, Fire, Lightning, and Poison attacks, and can be found east of Tasarak, in Hanged Man’s Hall. You will need summoning materials obtained from both Lord Zir and Beast in Ice to fight her.
All summonable bosses are now available at Level 200 as Tormented Echoes. These bosses will require more summon materials along with Stygian Stones, which can be found deep within the Pit. All items dropped from Tormented Echoes will be Item Level 925. Defeating your first Tormented Echo drops one Resplendent Spark as a first-time reward (account bound).
Additional Details
- To summon a Tormented Echo, simply go to their typical summon location and select the Tormented Echo variant. Note that to summon the Beast in Ice, you’ll need to craft a different Nightmare Dungeon Sigil.
- PTR Change: Materials required to summon have been reduced from 5x the normal amount, to 3x the amount of materials required, with 5x the amount of rewards.
Pits
Upon entering World Tier IV, you’ll receive a priority Quest to complete a Tier 46 Nightmare Dungeon. Once completed you will be able to collect Runeshards found in Helltide Chests, off World Bosses, in Legion events, NMDs and Whisper Bounties. 3 Runeshards are required to enter The Pit regardless of what Tier you enter.
In order to enter The Pit, make your way to Cerrigar to find the Obelisk close to the Waypoint. Upon entering, a 15 minute countdown timer will start along with a bar you must fill by slaying enough enemies. Upon filling the bar a portal will spawn that will lead you to the final boss. Be careful as these bosses are accompanied by un-targetable echoes of previous bosses that will attack you throughout the fight.
Additional Details:
- The Pit will be used to test your characters as well as to obtain Masterworking Materials, Stygian Stones for summoning Tormented Echo bosses, and Obols.
- Each player death removes time from the clock: first death removes 30 seconds, second death removes 60 seconds, third and subsequent deaths will remove 90 seconds. So regardless if you die, or a party member, this will remove the appropriate amount of time.
- The Party member that spends the Runeshards to open the Pit gets 100% of the Masterworking materials, the rest of the party receives half the amount.
- Tier 150 Pit is equivalent to AoZ 25.
-CHANGES-
NPCs Have Moved
Various NPCs for different services have been relocated closer together in towns. A Jeweler has been added to the Tree of Whispers. Please check your map for locations.
Trading
Legendary Items and Unique Items can now be traded. This only includes unaltered items. Imprinting, Enchanting, Tempering, or Masterworking an item will bind it your account.
Materials
Materials have been simplified into three categories. 13 items have been removed, with 3 new ones added for masterworking. Potion Upgrade and Elixir materials have been changed.
Additional Details
- Silver Ore, Superior Leather, and all Monster Parts have been removed.
- All herbs have been changed to ‘Bundled Herbs’ with the exception of Angelbreath which will still be required for elixir recipes and potion upgrades.
Elixirs
All weak, strong, and potent Elixirs have been removed and replaced with more powerful versions which are available at Level 50. Please refer to the patch notes for details.
Gems
Gems have changed across the board, some values have changed completely, others were buffed by a decent amount, and some now add stats when socketed to armor. Normal Gems are available at Level 51, Flawless at 71, and Royal at 91. Please consult your favorite D4 website for a prettier lay out of more details, or click the Additional Details below for what I could make using the forum template.
Additional Details
The values being shown are for Royal Quality Gems.
| Ruby | Previous | S4 Patch |
|---|---|---|
| Weapon: | +24.0% Overpower Damage | +54.0% Overpower Damage |
| Armor: | 4.0% Maximum Life | 9.0% Maximum Life |
| Jewelry: | +30.0% Fire Resistance | +45% Fire Resistance |
| Amethyst | Previous | S4 Patch |
|---|---|---|
| Weapon: | +8.0% Damage Over Time | +18.0% Damage Over Time |
| Armor: | 8.0% Damage Taken Over Time Reduction | +27 Strength |
| Jewelry: | +30.0% Shadow Resistance | +45% Shadow Resistance |
| Emerald | Previous | S4 Patch |
|---|---|---|
| Weapon: | +12.0% Critical Strike Damage to Vulnerable Enemies | +20.0% Vulnerable Damage |
| Armor: | +250 Thorns | +27 Dexterity |
| Jewelry: | +30.0% Poison Resistance | +45% Poison Resistance |
| Topaz | Previous | S4 Patch |
|---|---|---|
| Weapon: | +20.0% Basic Skill Damage | +45.0% Basic Skill Damage |
| Armor: | 10.0% Damage Reduction while Control Impaired | +27 Intelligence |
| Jewelry: | +30.0% Lightning Resistance | +45% Lightning Resistance |
| Sapphire | Previous | S4 Patch |
|---|---|---|
| Weapon: | +12.0% Critical Strike Damage to Crowd Controlled Enemies | +20.0% Critical Strike Damage |
| Armor: | 3.0% Damage Reduction while Fortified | +27 Willpower |
| Jewelry: | +30.0% Cold Resistance | +45% Cold Resistance |
| Diamond | Previous | S4 Patch |
|---|---|---|
| Weapon: | +15.0% Ultimate Skill Damage | +35.0% Ultimate Damage |
| Armor: | 5.0% Barrier Generation | +11.0% Barrier Generation |
| Jewelry: | +5.0% Resistance to All Elements | +6.0% Resistance to All Elements |
| Skull | Previous | S4 Patch |
|---|---|---|
| Weapon: | +24 Life on Kill | +48 Life on Kill |
| Armor: | +5.0% Healing Received | +15.0% Healing Received |
| Jewelry: | +250 Armor | +525 Armor |
Salvage
The option to Salvage “All Items” will do just that. All items, including Normal, White, Rare, Legendary, Unique, and possibly Uber Unique will be destroyed by this button now. If your items are not marked as Favorite, they will be destroyed. Salvaging is also how you obtain Aspects for your Codex now, more details below in the Codex of Power section.
Affixes
Fewer affixes can roll on items now, some of these affixes have now been spread out to Tempering Manuals, along with more being added to said manuals. Rares have now been reduced to having 2 Affixes, Legendaries will now come with 3 Affixes. With Tempering this can be increased even further of course.
The Affixes: Damage Reduction, +Shrine Duration, and +All Stats have been removed. Affixes now have their own buckets on dropped items, meaning no more then 1 affix can appear on an item within that same bucket. Examples in the details below.
Additional Details
Certain Affixes that appear on items now have their own buckets. Such as Crit Dmg, OP Dmg, Vuln Dmg and DoT Dmg are in their own affix bucket meaning no more than 1 of those affixes can appear on a dropped item.
Example #
: If you have an item with +Critical Damage on it, you will never be able to get OP Damage, Vuln Damage, or Damage Over Time on that same item. You can however get + % Damage and +% Critical Damage on the same item.
Example #
: No more then 1 resist can appear on a dropped item. If you find a Chest with +% Shadow Resist, it will not come with a 2nd resist, and you can not Enchant a second resist type on that item. You can add another resist type through Tempering though. However you will never find an item with more then 1 resist type, and you can only ever make an item with 2 resist types (one found on the item, one Tempered).
Please note that in order to Temper a Resist on an item it must have access to the ‘Defense Category’ which only includes Helms, Chests, Legs, Shields, and Amulets. So 5 total items can potentially have 2 resists. One Resist type through a normal affix found, or enchanted onto an item and one Resist type through Tempering.
Example #
: Any affix that adds + Class Skills/Passives CAN NOT have an additional affix of the same type on that item. If you have +2 to Basic Skills, you can’t have +2 to Bone Splinters on that same item.
Amulets may be exempt to some of these rules, most notably having multiple passives when finding a dropped amulet.
All Armor and Amulets can roll with +Skills/Passives, Rings can not. Each piece of armor is associated to a particular section of your Skill Tree. These can give you +All as well as Individual Skills, ex. +All Curse Skills, or just +Decrepify Skill / +All Core Skills, or +Bone Spear.
Codex of Power
Salvaging Legendary items at the Blacksmith (not the occultist), stores their powers as Legendary Aspects in your Codex of Power to be reused indefinitely. All Aspects now exist within the Codex of Power, and some will have levels which can be upgraded by finding an Aspect with a greater value up to the maximum amount. You can now search the term ‘equip’ or ‘equipped’ within the Codex of Power to list currently equipped affixes.
Item Changes
Unique items can now drop in WT1 and 2.
Uber Unique Items can start dropping from monster level 55, drops at 925 item power.
The Minimum levels required to equip Sacred and Ancestral items has been reduced.
- Sacred: 35
- Ancestral: 55
Item Drop Reduction
Fewer items will drop overall, but those items will be more likely to be valuable. As such when salvaging items, more materials will be obtained. Legendaries will now also salvage into Veiled Crystals, along with the normal materials they salvaged into.
Boss Summoning Materials
These can now drop from Goblins, Elites, Whisper Caches, World Bosses, Hellborn, etc. Previous methods to obtain summoning materials will still be more efficient, i.e. completing NMD for Distilled fear, but now you can expect to find them randomly while slaying your enemies.
Obols
You can now consistently gamble for 925 items at max level and they can have a chance to have Greater Affixes.
Zoom
This new option is listed under Options > Graphics > View Distance. It will have a drop down menu for Standard and Far. Far is between normal in town zoom and riding a horse zoom. Currently does not work in towns, I hope this is fixed for live.
Nightmare Dungeon Sigils
Only 1 Positive and 1 Negative Affix will appear on NMD Sigils regardless of the Tier. The negative affixes that stayed are Volanic, Stormbane, Nightmare Portals, etc.
: Goblin Packs
These have a chance to spawn randomly in NMDs, multiple goblins just sitting there waiting to be killed.
Wardrobe
You can now alter your hairstyle and facial hair within game and you no longer have to create a new character if your perm got messed up during creation.
-CAPS-
Armor Cap
9230 Total Armor is the new Armor Cap. Physical Damage calculation against Damage Reduction now caps at level 100.
Developer’s Note: Monsters will still deal more damage the higher level they are, but their relative damage reduction will remain the same from level 100 onward. This change was made to account for level 200 Boss monsters doing extreme amounts of damage to players that are capped for armor.
Tempering Affix Size
The increase obtained through these affixes for various skills and effects, such as Dust Devils or Bone Spirit, is now capped at 100%.
Cooldown Reduction
Now Capped at 75% from Gear only. You can still get cooldown resets or additional cooldown reduction from other sources like the Skill Tree or Aspects.
Attack Speed
Currently capped at 100%. Some attack speed modifiers can exceed this cap, but not all.
Movement Speed
Cap of 200%.
PVP Caps
- Vulnerable: Doesn’t work past the initial 20% bonus
- Crit Damage: Starts getting diminishing returns after 150% (Not sure if this is still a thing)
- Damage To Elites: May only work against “Bloodmarked Players” (still looking for confirmation)
- Overpower: Capped at 150% against player characters
Gold
Cap is now 99 trillion
Obols
Cap is now 2500
-Seasonal Things-
Just to preface, this Season will have a much lighter gimmick as compared to previous seasons. The reason for this is because of the massive overhaul to itemization. You can expect things to return back to normal come S5 according to the developers.
I’m just going to quote Avalon here, as he did a great job of listing what to expect going into the Seasonal Realm for S4.
Profane Mindcage Elixir
Seasonal Realm Only!
For the next 60 minutes:
- Increases Helltide Monster Level by 10
- Increases Aberrant Cinder drop rate and Threat again
Monsters in World Tiers 1 and 2 are capped at level 50.
If I missed anything please let me know. See you all when the Patch Hits.
I think it is interesting that the VoH will take us back to the area where we first learned about the Irion Wolves, and now we will be working with them again prior to the launch of the VoH. Is Blizzard up to something lore wise?