Blizzard PAX East Stream Friday, March 21 Hotfixes, Blue Posts

[chaud]

"Ask the Devs" Round 2: Itemization - Answers (Part 1)

Isle of Thunder - Stage 3 Unlocked

Blizzard at PAX East
Blizzard has something new to share on Friday at 10 AM EST / 7 AM PST! The event will be streamed, so check back tomorrow morning.

Blizzard Invades PAX East March 22-24

PAX East kicks off this week! Are you ready?

What: Hosted annually in Boston, PAX East is a celebration of gaming culture and community
Where: Boston Convention & Exhibition Center booth #1036 of the Expo Hall
When: March 22–24

Head on over to east.paxsite.com for panel schedules, hotel and travel information, forums, and more. If you have an iPhone, Android, BlackBerry, or Windows 7 smart phone, you can also download the super sexy (and super official) PAX East 2013 app from Guidebook for free.

Something New
We've got something new to share, and we're bringing it to PAX East! If you're attending, be sure to arrive at the Naga theater early in order to secure a seat for our presentation. If you're not going to PAX East this year (or you just went a little too crazy the night before), we've got you covered -- the whole thing is being streamed live on the official PAX Twitch channel at 10:00 a.m. EDT Friday, March 22.

The Great Jewel of PAX East
Gather your gear, heroes, and get ready to face down the Burning Hells on the PlayStation 3!

Our action-packed single-player hands-on demo will showcase several key elements that make Diablo III on the PS3 so much fun, including a reimagined interface and inventory system, direct character control, updated camera, and bosses and monsters specifically tuned for console. Players will also get to experience gameplay from Act III of the campaign where they’ll get to test their mettle as either the cunning Demon Hunter or mighty Barbarian.

We'll have demo stations available from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. EDT in booth #1036 of the Expo Hall, so if you’re in the area (and in the mood for some ritual demon slaughter), be sure to stop by and check it out!

RNG is RNG: Raffles, Giveaways, and More...
In addition to showcasing the PS3 version of Diablo III and chatting you up about the game as you saunter by, we'll also be giving away enough swag and prizes to make a Treasure Goblin jealous.

The Diablo III team will be sharing updates, photos, and more live from the convention floor, so be sure to "Like" us on Facebook and follow our official Twitter feed so you don't miss out.

For those who are Boston-bound, we salute you . . . and hope to see you there!

Patch 5.2 Hotfixes: March 21

Classes

• Warlock (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
  
  • Demonic Gateway should no longer despawn when the casting Warlock moves far away.
    

Quests

• Crumbled Chamberlain: Statue pieces now do not despawn when looted, allowing other players to loot the statue piece as well.
  
• Stone Cold: Fixed an issue where players were unable to interact with Grave Guardian statues.
  

Creatures

• Oondastas for everyone! Oondasta now respawns much more frequently.
  
• Exchange Guards have resumed their stance of not interfering with players engaged in Horde/Alliance hostilities(PvP combat).
  

Raids, Dungeons, and Scenarios

• Throne of Thunder
  
  • Gastropod should now favor attackers that are at range.
    
  • Reduced the amount of creatures in the area leading up to Ji-Kun in Raid Finder.
    
  • Fixed an issue where players winning a bonus roll after defeating Iron Qon on Heroic mode could receive a non-heroic version of the tier token.
    
  • Fixed an issue where damage from Lei Shen's Crashing Thunder, Lightning Whip, Overcharge and Discharged Energy was not being reduced Feint.
    
  • Twin Consorts
    
    • Reduced the health of Suen and Lu'lin in 25-player Heroic mode.
      
• Icecrown Citadel
  
  • Fixed an issue where Master Looters were unable to assign Shadowfrost Shards to another player.
    
• Temple of Ahn'Qiraj
  
  • The Prophet Skeram has loot again and no longer creates illusions for now. He'll be back to normal in a future patch.
    

Items

• Increased the cast time to perform the ritual for summonable bosses using Shan'ze Ritual Stone on the Isle of Thunder from 2 seconds to 5 seconds.
  
• All uncommon(green) item drops from the Isle of Thunder should now be disenchantable.
  
• Darkmoon Whistle should no longer cause other players to drop out of stealth.
  
• Essence of the Breeze should now only usable while on the continent of Pandaria.
  

Blue Posts

Cross-Realm Zones and Mounts
Don't think people have realized yet but the "zoning" issue that used to knock people off of 2 person mounts and kill them, it has been fixed. BUT now the issue has arised where I am getting DC'ed every time I'm between zones trying to "remount" once a zone line has been crossed.
We did manage to fix the 2 person mount issue, but yes, we know there's still an intermittent disconnect issue that we want to correct as well. We know what we need to do to fix it (*crosses her fingers*) but it won't be able to happen for a bit longer (potentially the next patch). We're continuing to work to improve it. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

The Crumbled Chamberlain
Good news, we're applying a hotfix to address the Crumbled Chamberlain pieces respawn. It should be in after this morning's restarts. Pieces will then spawn in the same locations for that day, but will change locations the following and so on. This way, if someone snags the piece you're going for, it's not going to jump to a new location. You'll still be able to get it. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Throne of Thunder Difficulty Feedback
Throne of Thunder normal isn't tuned assuming you are a Heroic raiding guild. If your raid is still progressing through Tier 14 (say, at Garalon) it's very likely you'll be able to only kill Jin'rokh and then face a very difficult battle trying to slay Horridon or Council of Elders, though.

In that case (and for the guilds still progressing through T14) it probably makes more sense to go back clear the rest of Tier 14 (which is now more doable thanks to the 10% reduction in damage and health of bosses as well as the new VP gear you can get with 5.2 Patch).

Guilds that have completed Tier 14 Normal already should be able to progress through Throne of Thunder. Of course, you might not clear all of it in a couple weeks, but it's something definitely doable without getting Heroic gear from Tier 14 (gear from Normal Tier 15 is higher item level).

On the other hand, it's also important to keep in mind that Jin'rokh is a rather easy boss. He's not necessarily a representation of the rest of the raid's difficulty. Which is something many of you have probably noticed while progressing on Horridon or Council of Elders. And that might set a wrong expectation as to how quickly you can/should progress in Throne of Thunder. It's very possible to kill Jin'rokh without much difficulty and then suddenly feel like Horridon is a brick wall, don't despair!

There are many encounters in Throne of Thunder that your raid will have to learn. And it's normal to feel things may be overtuned at the beginning of a new raiding tier while everyone is trying to better understand what each boss does and how to execute the fight properly.

Not everything comes down to how much gear your raid has. In fact, you might overgear, say, Horridon, and yet be unable to progress past him due to an inefficient strategy.

In any case, the developers are keeping an eye out on how things are going, and they will be making adjustments as needed. Ideally, no one should find him/herself in a situation where it looks like it's impossible to win without getting more gear and unable to actually get more gear.

So, don't give up. Go get those VP items (some items from Raid Finder might help as well, absolutely) and keep refining your strategies. The boss kills will come. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

The Daily Blink - Wallpaper
Yesterday's comic was so well received, it was made in to a wallpaper!

[reverendball]

something new eh?

[Lora]

always nerfing fun items

[Deleted]

Titan!?

[Dasn]

blizzard all-stars

[TragedyAnn]

Titan is "the rumored next-gen mmo" they specifically stated is NOT the announcement, and Blizzard All-Stars is already announced as far as I'm aware... (Is that not... why we know about it?)

[Razorice]

I can't wait!!

[Madcaptn]

It's going to be all-stars, I can't see how it could be anything else.

[orderschvank]

biggest troll if they say its the all-star thing. because we all know about it lol

[Nathiest]

So are they saying that they haven't been working on a next-gen MMO?

[Crackleslap]

If it's not titan, i dont give a shit.

[orderschvank]

If it's not titan, i dont give a shit.

ya watch it be some first person shooter lol

[Gurushock]

Yeah I'm 100% sure it's not Titan... So therefor I don't care much :P

[Flutterguy]

They have an additional team working on a new franchise. It will likely be this.

[Arbs]

Cmon Blizzard All-Stars !!

[HunterSalty]

iOS Pet Battles.

[Ulgrim]

Digital/Online Warcraft TCG called Heroes of Warcraft. Meh.

[Asphyxiate9]

People are hyping up titan too much, i'm ready to watch it flop. It's already been said that its tailored for casuals, it can only go downhill from there.

[Colmadero]

I hate being teased, haha

[Byucknah The Red]

iOS Pet Battles.

That would be AWESOME! To bad I am sure that wont happen :S