Upcoming changes

[Kontinuum]

Summary from Diablofans:

Seasons will be coming to consoles in 2017. They will basically be functionally identical to those on PC, including the Leaderboards, Season Journey and its rewards.
Upcoming Season's reward: Seraphim Wings

Crafting Materials will be integrated into the UI, no longer taking up space in your inventory. This includes Bounty Mats and Hellfire event items. You'll still need to click them to pick them up, though.
Kanai's Cube will get a button to fill it with the materials of the active recipe.
The Mystic will get an extra tab containing all existing dyes! No more need to run through all vendors to find the proper dye.
If you finish a Greater Rift without dying, you will get an additional Legendary Gem upgrade (HC characters always will).

New Zones coming to the north of Act II: The Shrouded Moors, a rain-swept, windy, desolate place. People tried to settle it, but never could stay.
Second Zone: Temple of the Firstborn, where Inarius and Lilith first set foot on Sanctuary. It is set deep underground and has a Lovecraftian vibe.
The Realms of Fate allow for transitions between zones/tile sets without actually leaving a zone.
We'll also be getting plenty of new monster types to fit the new zones.

Greater Rift changes: New algorithm to spawn monsters in Greater Rifts: No more huge empty areas!
There's now also a higher chance to get a new tile set when descending a level, same for the monster types in each one.
GR Floor sizes are more consistent now.
Floor entry areas are now monster-free.
Monster behavior: Leaping monsters can now be killed in mid-air; Invisible/buried monsters will now emerge faster.
Elite affixes: Reflects damage will now shoot projectiles back at you instead of simply dealing damage instantly; Shielding will cancel instantly on the last monster of the pack.

Item Changes: Saffron Wrap: Increases Overpower damage by ~50% per enemy hit on the previous Overpower, max 20 enemies.
Manald Heal: Enemies stunned with Paralysis also take ~2700% weapon damage as Lightning.
Faithful Memory: Each enemy hit by Falling Sword increases the damage of Blessed Hammer by ~50% for 5 seconds.
Rabid Strike: Spirit Spenders that teleport you while Epiphany is active are also mimicked on a distant target for free.
Hellcat Waistgaurd: Grenades have a chance to bounce ~5 times dealing an additional 50% damage on each bounce, 800% on the final bounce.
The Barber: Instead of dealing direct damage, your Spirit Barrage now accumulates on the target. When you stop channeling, it explodes dealing ~250% of the accumulated damage within 15 yards.

Challenge Rifts: Timed GR run where everyone has the same hero, same build, same dungeon layout, same monsters, same pylons
Will be updated frequently.
Content comes from Rifts run by regular players.
You can use them to have a look at builds you don't know yet.
Competing will require you to learn both, the build and the layout.
There will be Leaderboards for them.
You'll be rewarded if you beat the original player's time on the Rift, most likely with Bounty Bags for your own character.
When entering in multiplayer, all the players will be using the exact same character.

2.4.3 will be on PTR next week, it will contain the Anniversary Event, the new Legendaries, the Mystic UI, and the Rift improvements
Later: Armory, Necromancer, Challenge Rifts, Crafting UI, new Zones.

http://www.diablofans.com/news/48841...2-live-updates

Screenshots
(from https://www.reddit.com/live/xve0fsh4gq62/)
Density
http://imgur.com/yC99xNr

New monsters
http://imgur.com/tCU92bl
http://imgur.com/0Jbf3ME
http://imgur.com/BGPux2O

Official recap
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/blog/2036...ay-2-11-5-2016

[bbr]

Nice summary.

quite curious about the challenge rifts,. those leaderboards will actually be more interesting than the bot ridden ones we got now ...

[Deleted]

Challenge rifts sound way better than seasonal leaderboards which is the only other true "competitive" thing we have. Something that everyone can spend some time with, that will demonstrate some skill (and no doubt some luck) and that's not a reward for botting or simply who has played the most hours so far. It also means that perhaps we'll see people playing different builds and getting experience with them - rewarding those with a more flexible playstyle who can adjust. That actually intrigues me far more than the necro class right now, as it's some endgame content I would definitely use.

The other changes are all pretty positive quality of life updates too.

[zito]

New endgame revolves around more rifts


/sigh

[Synadrasa]

I think Blizzard is coming to terms with the fact that D3 is a massive flop, and it could have been so amazing.

[Kontinuum]

Complete Blizzcon Recap
http://www.diablofans.com/news/48842...complete-recap

[Mormolyce]

Wish they'd add gems to that tab, but I'll take it!

[BenBos]

I think Blizzard is coming to terms with the fact that D3 is a massive flop, and it could have been so amazing.

Diablo3 at launch with Gold only trading in hardcore mode was too advanced for the whiney kids. Pardo left and Blizzard is down the drain with WoW left as the only place to have some fun.

Why it's a failure ?

- AND adaptable easy modes AND no trading makes for a very BORING play as your "grind" has absolutely ZERO value.

- Hardcore play has no significance AT ALL since you can set difficulty to moronly "easy" where the only death you will meet is through internet cuts.

- At least in the first 6 months you had this very difficult challenge to try to go to the end boss with grinding mats and gear. And crafting had SIGNIFICANCE with an Auction House certainly in perma death hardcore modes.

These days only idiots would play D3 for longer than a few days after each artificial reset.


There is ABSOLUTELY NO CHALLENGE in hardcore modes left since you can eliminate all risks by going stupidly easy... and if you are so dumb to actually set up higher difficulties you probably vote for Trump's awesome brains too.

D3 Vanilla - by Rob Pardo - was the best video game I ever played (after WoW in 2005-2009).

Now it is a piece of junk.

[bbr]

I think Blizzard is coming to terms with the fact that D3 is a massive flop, and it could have been so amazing.

D2 wasn't all that great until the expansion either,.

you'd think they learned from that and would put an extra expansion on this one,. it's what keeps people going,...

[Kontinuum]

2.4.3 PTR Patch Notes
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/blog/2036...otes-11-8-2016

PTR Item Vendor
http://us.battle.net/forums/en/d3/topic/20752115058#1

Technical changes
https://www.reddit.com/r/Diablo/comm..._with_updated/

[Coldkil]

Nice upgrade to DX11.

As for patch notes, the new legendaries look pretty MEH, with the DH belt being the only one that calls for new builds (i have at least 4 in my mind) but i don't think they'll be performing well or at least on par with already existing ones.

Other than that, anniversary event and that's it. Something worth playing some hours and then putting away - again.

[Kontinuum]

Graphics comparison (live vs PTR)
http://i.imgur.com/YhP9Ayf.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/xYPG8tK.jpg
https://np.reddit.com/r/Diablo/comme...cs_comparison/

[MechaCThun]

I am most excited for crafting materials not taking up bag space anymore but I am still holding out for either larger bags or additional bag tabs.

[bbr]

Graphics comparison (live vs PTR)
http://i.imgur.com/YhP9Ayf.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/xYPG8tK.jpg
https://np.reddit.com/r/Diablo/comme...cs_comparison/

i like the darker theme. took em a while to get that XD

[Coldkil]

Nice upgrade to DX11.

As for patch notes, the new legendaries look pretty MEH, with the DH belt being the only one that calls for new builds (i have at least 4 in my mind) but i don't think they'll be performing well or at least on par with already existing ones.

Other than that, anniversary event and that's it. Something worth playing some hours and then putting away - again.

Quoting myself - apparently the WD dagger is broken and OP as hell, but honestly it makes some builds on par with other top stuff, so i don't really see why people call it broken. The Crusader belt is a nice item which blends really well with the hammerdin build.

The rest is more on the "fun" side. I'll probably just pass my time doing random rifts with strange builds hoping it gets chosen for the Challenge XD

[zito]

The Crusader belt is a nice item which blends really well with the hammerdin build.

Can someone tell me why there is 4 different legendary weapon 1h's just for blessed hammer?!?!? Like.... why lol

[Gadzooks]

I think Blizzard is coming to terms with the fact that D3 is a massive flop, and it could have been so amazing.

D3 is one of the most successful video games of all time. The base game and expansion have sold 30 million copies. I'd LOVE to work for a company that sells 30 million copies of a "flop."

What's more accurate is Blizzard is coming to terms with the issue that the devs have designed themselves into a corner with the game, and they need to break out of that, or put out a new game.

Just because there are problems now, doesn't negate the game's history. They sold 30,000,000 copies. 30 MILLION. Nobody gets fired for selling 30 million of anything.

If Blizzard pulled the plug on the Diablo franchise right now, the game would still be considered one of the most successful franchises in game history. Their legacy is there.

It always makes me laugh when people try to wave away real success, because they're not happy right now. The Diablo 3 team kicked ass for the company, and no sour grapes from you will ever change that.

[urasim]

I think Blizzard is coming to terms with the fact that D3 is a massive flop, and it could have been so amazing.

A game that sells well isn't a flop. Learn the fucking terminologies, FFS.

[Yamuri]

A game that sells well isn't a flop. Learn the fucking terminologies, FFS.

I agree with this to an extent. No man's sky is a good counter argument. I see people jump on D3 all the time on my friends list.

[urasim]

I agree with this to an extent. No man's sky is a good counter argument. I see people jump on D3 all the time on my friends list.

You can disagree all you want, but you're still wrong. A flop is something that fails massive hard. A flop doesn't make money. A flop is the new Ghostbusters movie. It didn't make as much money as it cost to produce the movie. That's a perfect example of a flop. World of Warcraft movie was a flop domestically, but it did insanely well in China.