The Diablo III blog has been updated with a new post by Wyatt Cheng. In it, Cheng discusses design implementation for the upcoming v1.03 patch.

Here's what the team is working on:

• Bridging the item gap so that players don't feel compelled to use the Auction House to find the best gear and equipment. This is accomplished by increasing the drop rates.
• A continued look at Legendary items.
• Nephalem Difference: Players will no longer be guaranteed multiple rares from bosses conquered. It can stil happen but not necessarily a guarantee.
• Making solo and group play as close to the same as possible.
• Making Inferno Mode with a more reasonable difficulty curve.
• Continued evaluation of death mechanics.
• The effect of attack speed
• Lowering the cost of gem creation with your blacksmith and jeweler.

Wish we could get some updates on PvP...when it's coming, and how exactly it will be implemented.

Increased drop rates? Can I get an "Amen"?

They're startin to give in to the whiners

Some welcome changes.  A note though while they removed a guaranteed rare from boss fights they added a guaranteed rare to rare/elite packs which means there is the chance to get more guaranteed rares than ever before.  They want people to get a 5 stack, kill a boss, or hunt more rares/elites, and continue to hunt rares/elites.  It is a buff really and people are taking it as a nerf.

Really really like the chance for all end game items to drop anywhere in Inferno.  It was a must add.

Heh , the drop rate in inferno was needed , since retards we're rushing through Act 2 and 3 to farm Act 4 and over selling and screwing up the AH along with game economy.  A game is meant to be played from start to finish , so if your planning on cheating your way through then go play Skyrim please.  The reason they nerfed end act boss drop rates was that people can stop farming them , since the game is all about the Elite packs and not the end act bosses. I mean come on , you got Elite packs that are way harder then Izual but drop crap , so it's logical to nerf to buff the rest in the long run.  So by doing this you eliminate (or almost) botting end act bosses like in D2 , since every Elite will have a chance to drop good gear.  Alot of people have a hard time thinking outside the box and reading in between the lines of a patch note.  

Here comes the WoWification.

Infenro is too hard? LOL, more like still a bit too easy.

And MORE rare drops? Give me a break, there are way to many already.

And not gaurunteeing that rares drop off of bosses? LOL I can't remember the last time I even got a rare from a boss, if I recall, all they ever drop is blues.

It is too bad the game is starting to go downhill already and become so easy :(....

Originally posted by SuprGamerX

Heh , the drop rate in inferno was needed , since retards we're rushing through Act 2 and 3 to farm Act 4 and over selling and screwing up the AH along with game economy.  A game is meant to be played from start to finish , so if your planning on cheating your way through then go play Skyrim please.  The reason they nerfed end act boss drop rates was that people can stop farming them , since the game is all about the Elite packs and not the end act bosses. I mean come on , you got Elite packs that are way harder then Izual but drop crap , so it's logical to nerf to buff the rest in the long run.  So by doing this you eliminate (or almost) botting end act bosses like in D2 , since every Elite will have a chance to drop good gear.  Alot of people have a hard time thinking outside the box and reading in between the lines of a patch note.  

Very well said! I am also happy with Blizzard acknowledging this and addressing it.

Best items ingame can drop in inferno act 1 now, first easy mode engaged

5 Stacks of NV( which takes about 15 minutes to get and is basicly perm once you get it unless your a lazy hoe ) now gives even more rares then it used to, second easy mode engaged

Nerfing Act 2-4 Inferno to be in line with ACT 1, third easy mode engaged

Nerfing Monsters increased damage with more players in the party, so now they have more life, but are still weak as shit, fourth easy mode engaged

Now, all that looks terrible to me, but Im not saying the whole patch is bad

Changing attack speed could be good or bad, I have not ever noticed an issue with it, so I dont see why they are doing this, but it could come out better then it is, only highly unlikely.

Lowering the prices on the Artisans, awesome, I only craft or find my gear, real men play without the AH.

Increasing price on death at 60, heck yes, I would love to see another money sink to stop all this gold inflation people are trying to do. Anyone who complains about this needs to go to Hell, get NV, and spend about 15 minutes running around and you'll have over 100k.

But in the end, those good things, plus whatever minor stuff they change that wasnt mention wont make up for the nerfs, allowing best items to drop in act 1 very rarely sure, the rest didnt need to happen.

Originally posted by Dragim

Here comes the WoWification.

Infenro is too hard? LOL, more like still a bit too easy.

And MORE rare drops? Give me a break, there are way to many already.

And not gaurunteeing that rares drop off of bosses? LOL I can't remember the last time I even got a rare from a boss, if I recall, all they ever drop is blues.

It is too bad the game is starting to go downhill already and become so easy :(....

Oh no!  Some basic changes based on user opinion!  They are catering to carebears and whiners!  It's WoWablo!  WoW this!  WoW that!   Why is it whenever a company patches a game, single player or multiplayer, people need to scream it's becoming WoW?  All games do this.  Get over it.  As others have said, some of these are really needed changes.

The double talk stands out in this list.  They say they are increasing the drop rate, yet in another statement they are saying you won't get mulitple rares in boss fights anymore.  Huge difference in rare qualities, to start with.  Personally I find blues with better stats far more often.

Funny thing, I still enjoy Diablo II occassionally.  I have already stopped playing Diablo III.  I was just playing single player, attempting to get a feel for the different classes and I got hacked somehow.  I did not even bother to have them reset the account.  I gave the game to my son to play with.  I think Diablo III is the most disappointing game of the year, by a large margin.

I'm happy with alot of the changes, 3 - 7 minute kiting battles in act 3 inferno for no reward was getting a bit old. I mean who thought it was a good idea to kill some of the hardest content in the game and only getting level 51 blues.. lol.

Originally posted by Destructhor
Drop rates are fine, rares wouldn't be rares if the dropped all the time right? The issue is itemization, considerind a level 60 2h weapon can have a dps range from 370-1450 that's the issue. Fix itemizaton, leave drop rates alone. Also if they fix itemization nerfing inferno wouldn't be necessary imo...

Yeah i think they completely missed the point that everyopne was trying to make. It wasnt that rares and legendaries werent dropping, it was how utterly useless the majority of them were. They need to fix stat allocation on equipment to actually make items give appropriate stats with varying ranges for the type of weapon it is, not give us more useless junk to NPC.

It was only a matter of time. The squeaky (whiny) wheel gets the grease. Nerf incoming to Inferno mode...so sad

Originally posted by wrightstuf

It was only a matter of time. The squeaky (whiny) wheel gets the grease. Nerf incoming to Inferno mode...so sad

You people should actually buy and play the game, before trolling and making uninformed and stupid comments!

In Diablo 3 the boss encounters are not the hardest content in the game. It is actually the elite packs you run into. Those are the most challenging and interesting encounters in the game.

So it was just silly that rare loot was practically only dropping from Boss encounters and not from the actuall hardest content in the game, namely the elite packs.

The whole point of this game is to explore all the areas, discover hidden random dungeons and encounter (rare) elite packs for loot! That makes this game fun and creates the replayability!

If directly farming Act I, II, III and IV storyline boss encounters being the only way to get rare loot (which is basically now the case), then there would be no replay value in this game and people getting bored reall quick!

Which is basically what is happening now, as searching for hidden dungeons and Elite pack encounters is hardly rewarding! So people are just farming bosses now!

And when it comes to Inferno difficulty. They are not nerfing it! They are only fixing the spike damage issues, that were unintended!

There is no challenge to being just one shotted left and right over and over again due to insane spike damage you cannot counter. Which is a real issue for the melee classes right now. Most people farming Inferno right now, do it with ranged classes. Then something is wrong and needs to be fixed.

Just my 2 cents.

Blizzard just cant win. Thats what happens when you have a game with so many players, you get so many figs that act like chiefs but no one wants to be an indian.

Listen up figs im sure itll all work out in the end, and by fig I mean an actual fig.

Originally posted by JeroKane

Originally posted by wrightstuf

It was only a matter of time. The squeaky (whiny) wheel gets the grease. Nerf incoming to Inferno mode...so sad

You people should actually buy and play the game, before trolling and making uninformed and stupid comments!

In Diablo 3 the boss encounters are not the hardest content in the game. It is actually the elite packs you run into. Those are the most challenging and interesting encounters in the game.

So it was just silly that rare loot was practically only dropping from Boss encounters and not from the actuall hardest content in the game, namely the elite packs.

The whole point of this game is to explore all the areas, discover hidden random dungeons and encounter (rare) elite packs for loot! That makes this game fun and creates the replayability!

If directly farming Act I, II, III and IV storyline boss encounters being the only way to get rare loot (which is basically now the case), then there would be no replay value in this game and people getting bored reall quick!

Which is basically what is happening now, as searching for hidden dungeons and Elite pack encounters is hardly rewarding! So people are just farming bosses now!

And when it comes to Inferno difficulty. They are not nerfing it! They are only fixing the spike damage issues, that were unintended!

There is no challenge to being just one shotted left and right over and over again due to insane spike damage you cannot counter. Which is a real issue for the melee classes right now. Most people farming Inferno right now, do it with ranged classes. Then something is wrong and needs to be fixed.

Just my 2 cents.

 

 

Some of the champ combos could take Diablo out in seconds. Great game design, working as intended.

Some of the issues addressed in this patch are ok but there are some big fundamental design flaws in D3 that are going to make it difficult to overcome to make this the great game it should be.

I'm going to shelve this one until the first expansion hits and see if they've actually found some designers with a smidge of creativity. Right now it just don't cut it. Poor, game is poor.

Originally posted by Dragim

And not gaurunteeing that rares drop off of bosses? LOL I can't remember the last time I even got a rare from a boss, if I recall, all they ever drop is blues.

Right now when you have 5 stacks you 'always' get at least 2 yellows from bosses. Are you even playing inferno or have a level 60 character? You would never have made that statement if you had.. unless you farm bosses without getting 5 stacks.