Update: Blizzard has announced that today's maintenance has been extended due to the discovery of a "hardware issue" with patch 2.0.1.
Original:
Blizzard has just announced that Diablo 3 patch 2.0.1 has been released and is currently available for download in the Americas. Today's patch contains a number of fixes, class adjustments, and itemizations changes, as well as a total revamp of the Paragon leveling system and the implementation of Clans and Communities. Perhaps most importantly, today's patch contains all of the expansion data for Reaper of Souls, essentially allowing everyone to predownlaod the expansion. Unfortunately, you still need to wait until the expansion's release on March 25th to access all of the new content.
In the meantime, you can find the full patch notes for update 2.0.1 below:
GENERAL
- Pools of Reflection have been added to the game
- Pools of Reflection provide a 25% bonus to experience
- This bonus persists until you reach a set amount of bonus experience (equal to approximately 10% of the current amount of Paragon experience needed to reach the next Paragon level) or your character dies
- Gathering additional Pools of Reflection bonuses increases the amount of total experience bonus a character can receive until character death, stacking up to 10 times
- This experience bonus persists on logout
- Nephalem Glory has been added to the game
- Occasionally during battle, monsters will drop Power Globes when damaged or killed
- Power Globes grant the Nephalem Glory buff, which causes players to deal additional damage in the form of golden lightning bolts and increases their movement speed for a short time
- This buff can stack up to three times
- New hero stats have been added to the game
- These include Toughness, Healing, Splash Damage, Cooldown Reduction, and Resource Cost Reduction
- Life Steal has been redesigned and is now less effective at higher character levels
- At level 60, Life Steal is reduced to 10% effectiveness
- Players now have the ability to resurrect in multiple places when they die in Normal (non-Hardcore) games
- You may choose to either resurrect at your body, in town, or at the last checkpoint you encountered
- Players may not resurrect at their body during a Boss encounter
- Players may only resurrect at their body a maximum of three times in a row
- Player hit boxes have been adjusted to more closely represent character models
- Both male and female models of the same class share the same size hit box
- Followers now automatically level with characters
- Quests now occasionally grant item rewards when completed during the leveling process
- Gold can no longer be traded
- Graphics engine has been updated to support reflections
- Reflections can be turned on in the Options > Video menu
- Note: This setting is not recommended for players running minimum system specifications
BOSSES
- Many bosses have had their mechanics revisted and retuned
- The following bosses have received the largest changes to their encounters:
- Maghda
- Siegebreaker
- Azmodan
- Iskatu
- In addition, the enrage timers for the following Bosses will only be enabled in Torment I and above:
- The Butcher
- Zoltun Kulle
- Belial
- Ghom
- Siegebreaker
- Rakanoth
CLASSES
- All classes have undergone significant revision. Additional details and patch notes will be available in the near future. In the meantime, we encourage you to log in and explore the new changes for yourself!
CRAFTING AND ARTISANS
- Crafting has received several quality of life changes
- Crafting materials have been condensed into two item level tiers: 1-60 and 60-70
- This change is to reduce the amount of stash space consumed by crafting materials and simply older crafting recipes
- All crafting materials currently in character inventories and stash have been converted accordingly
- All crafted items will now roll with stats appropriate to the character crafting them, using the Loot 2.0 Smart Drop system
- Please note that items designed to roll specific stats, such as the Archon Armor patterns, are exempt from this system
- Items purchased from vendors are now flagged as such, and cannot be salvaged
DIFFICULTY
- The difficulty system has been completely revised
- Nightmare, Hell, and Inferno modes have been removed
- Difficulty is now dynamic and monsters will level up with your characters
- There are now five difficulty settings to choose from: Normal, Hard, Expert, Master, and Torment (1-6)
- Normal, Hard, and Expert are immediately available
- Master unlocks upon completing Act IV
- Torment unlocks upon reaching level 60
- Torment level also includes a difficulty slider, offering an additional six adjustments with increasing rewards and more powerful monsters
- Each level offers new bonuses and rewards, visible in the difficulty selection menu
- You can now lower your difficulty setting in-game
- However, increasing your difficulty still requires exiting your current game
- This option is disabled in Hardcore mode
- To account for these changes, monster density has been adjusted across all Acts
EVENTS
- Cursed Objects
- Chests and Shrines around Sanctuary now have a chance to be cursed, starting an event once they are inspected
- Like other events, completing a Cursed Chest or Shrine provides a small gold and experience reward, as well as either a Radiant Chest or a random Shrine buff
- These events offer a variety of challenges, including endless monster waves, timed events, and potentially spawning bosses out in the open world
- Infernal Machines
- Torment level difficulty is now required to use Infernal Machines
ITEMIZATION (LOOT 2.0)
- Itemization has undergone a major overhaul:
- Legendary and Set items are now Bind on Account
- Players in multiplayer games may trade Legendaries and Set Items they find with others who were present for the drop for up to 2 hours after the item is acquired
- The Smart Drop system has been implemented
- All items that drop have a chance to roll as "Smart Loot"
- Smart Loot items roll intelligently based on the character being played (example: A Wizard is more likely to find items with Intelligence or bonuses to Wizard skills than a Barbarian)
- Class specific items will no longer roll stats inappropriate to their class (example: Intelligence will no longer appear on Mighty Weapons or Belts)
- New item affixes have been added to the game
- This include Splash Damage, Cooldown Reduction, Resource Cost Reduction, +% damage to Physical damage skills, and specific Class Skill Bonuses
- Item properties have been separated into two categories: Primary and Secondary
- Primary Stats include: Strength, Dexterity, Intelligence, Vitality, Critical Hit Damage, Critical Hit Chance, Attack Speed, Life per Second, Armor, +% Life, Bonus Damage to Elites, Bleed Damage, All Resistance, Sockets, and all new affixes listed above
- Secondary Stats include: Gold Find, Thorns, Bonus Experience per Monster Kill, Chance for (Fear, Stun, Blind, Freeze, Chill, Slow, Immobilize and Knockback), Ignore Durability Loss, Bonus Healing to Health Globes and Potions, Bonus Pickup Radius, Single Resist, Life After Kill, and Level Requirement Reduction
- This is to prevent stats that directly and indirectly increase character power from competing with one another
- Stat ranges on items have been narrowed significantly (example: instead of an item having a stat range of 1-200 Strength, its range might now be something like 140-200)
- Legendary powers now roll in a range, instead of a static amount
- Example: The Legendary Spirit Stone “The Laws of Seph” has the legendary affix “Using Blinding Flash restores [75-100] spirit”
- Players can now view the stat ranges of items by pressing and holding CTRL while an item's tooltip is open
- All Legendary items have been reworked with one or all of the above points in mind
- Potions have been condensed to a single type; they now provide 60% of your total health when consumed
- All Potions currently in character inventories or stashes will be converted to the new Potion type
MONSTERS
- Monster affixes have been revisited and retuned
- Arcane Enchanted
- Spawn effect now shows which direction it will start rotating
- Desecrator
- Damage now begins low, but quickly ramps up to its maximum damage
- Frozen
- Increased the number of Frozen crystals spawned by monsters with this affix
- Frozen no longer increases how many crystals are spawned based on the number of players in the game
- Frozen crystals now deal area of effect damage over time to players as they build up to their explosion
- Jailer
- Now does a small amount of damage when applied to the player
- Vortex
- Now does a small amount of damage when applied to the player
- Mortar
- Now has an outer impact area that does less damage than the center of impact
- Now detonates if they vertically hit a wall
- Plagued
- Monsters with this affix now sometimes drop a pool under players as well as under themselves
- Reflects Damage
- No longer reflects a portion of incoming damage
- Now reflects a fixed amount of damage per attack
- Elite and Champion monsters now have five new possible affixes
- Frozen Pulse: A shard of ice follows targets around before freezing in place and pulsing cold damage in a small area
- Orbiter: A nexus of electrical energy appears, surrounded by additional balls of lightning that orbit in a large area
- Poison Enchanted: Summons globules of poison matter that spread in a cross pattern, dealing damage to those caught in their wake
- Thunderstorm: A powerful bolt of lightning strikes the ground, emanating a small wave of electrical energy
- Wormhole: A pair of portals appears, dealing damage as it tears unfortunate targets from their location and transports them elsewhere
- Monster density has been revisited
- Density has been retuned around the new difficulty system
- Elite and Champion packs can now spawn in a larger variation of pack sizes
- Wasp projectiles can now be dodged and blocked
PARAGON (PARAGON 2.0)
- The Paragon leveling system has been completely revamped
- There is no longer a cap on the number of Paragon levels a player can gain
- Paragon levels are now account-wide and shared across all characters
- Note that Paragon levels are tracked independently between Hardcore and Normal modes
- Players no longer gain static bonuses upon achieving Paragon Levels and bonuses currently earned by players have been removed
- Players now earn Paragon points each level to spend in one of four separate categories: Core, Offense, Defense, and Utility
- Players with existing Paragon levels have been granted the appropriate number of points to distribute amongst these categories
- With these changes in mind, the Paragon leveling curve has been updated
- Note that all Paragon experience earned across all characters prior to this patch has been totaled and recalculated into your new account-wide Paragon level
- Paragon points can be allocated by clicking the Paragon button in the Character Paper Doll and Inventory screen (Default Hotkey C)
SOCIAL FEATURES
- Clans and Communities have been added to the game
- Clans
- Anyone may create a Clan, and doing so gives access to the Clan window (default hotkey N)
- Joining or creating a clan displays your clan tag next to your name
- Clan members can view the Members Roster, a private chat channel, and a News & Info tab for Clan affairs and information in the Clan window
- Clans support up to 120 members and require an invitation to join
- Players may only be a member of one Clan at a time
- Communities
- Anyone may create a Community, and can view their Community details in the Social tab (default hotkey SHIFT + O)
- Community members have access to their Members Roster, a dedicated chat channel, and a News & Info tab for sharing stories and Community information
- Players may join any number of Communities they wish
- Communities do not have a membership limit; however, if the number of members exceeds 100, only Officers and above will be displayed in the Members Roster
- Communities can be designated as Private or Public; Private Communities require invitation to join
- Communities are organized by categories, including but not limited to Classes, Regional, and Game Type
USER INTERFACE
- Several quality of life changes have been applied to the User Interface
- The Difficulty and Game Creation menus have been completely redone
- The in-game Menu has been revised
- The waypoint list has been replaced with a waypoint map
- Skill tooltips now show damage type if Advanced Tooltips are enabled
- Several new social options have been added to support Clans and Communities
- These can be accessed in the Options > Gameplay menu
- New chat colors associated with Clans and Communities have been added
- There is now an option to enable icons for dropped items instead of text
- This can be enabled in the Options > Gameplay menu
- There is now an option to automatically skip all cut scenes
- This can be enabled in the Options > Gameplay menu
- Item labels for Gold piles are no longer displayed
- This is to reduce visual clutter; values are still displayed when gold is picked up