d3 Patch 2.6.1 PTR Patch Notes: Aug 30

[Stan 5,240]

A new 2.6.1 PTR build was deployed to test servers yesterday, with changes to Witch Doctor's Creeping Death passive and Wizard's Frozen Orb projectile range and many tweaks for Legendary items.

Patch notes below contain only the latest changes (v2.6.1.47041). For full patch notes, please visit the previous 2.6.1 build located here. Blizzard also mentioned that Windows XP / Vista support will be ending at some point during PTR.

Blizzard (Source)

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

• Classes
• Items
• Adventure Mode

CLASSES

Witch Doctor Passives

• Creeping Death
  • Increased the duration of Haunt, Locust Swarm, and the damage amplification of Piranhas when this passive is active from 3600 to 14400 seconds
  • Note: There is currently a bug preventing this passive from affecting Piranhas; this will be fixed in an upcoming PTR patch

Wizard Skills

• Arcane Orb
  • Frozen Orb
    • Increased projectile travel distance from 30 to 45

ITEMS

Legendary Items

Barbarian

• Band of Might
  • After casting Furious Charge, Ground Stomp, or Leap, take 50–60% 60-80% reduced damage for 8 seconds
• Bracers of the First Men
  • Hammer of the Ancients attacks 50% faster and deals 150–200% 300-400% 400-500% increased damage
• Gavel of Judgement
  • Hammer of the Ancients returns 20–25 Fury if it hits 3 or fewer enemies. The damage of Hammer of the Ancients is increased by 400-500% 600-800% and it returns 25 Fury if it hits 3 or fewer enemies
  • Note: Existing versions of this item will also be changed to include the damage roll in the orange text, but will always roll a damage roll equal to the previous maximum possible.
    • Note: The Legendary power on this item is currently not functioning; this will be fixed in an upcoming patch

Crusader

• Fate of the Fell
  • Heaven's Fury gains two additional rays and has its damage increased by 150-200% 375-500%
• Golden Flense
  • Sweep Attack restores 6 Wrath for each enemy hit and has its damage increased by 225-300% 

Witch Doctor

• The Short Man’s Finger
  • Note: There is currently a bug which causes the new and old versions of the ring to not work when both are equipped; this will be fixed in an upcoming PTR patch

Wizard

• Halo of Karini
  • You take 45–60% 60-80% less damage for 3 4 seconds after your Storm Armor electrocutes an enemy more than 30 15 yards away

Set Items

Crusader

• Thorns of the Invoker
  • (2) Set
    • Note: There is currently an issue which causes the actual Thorns increase to be 35% instead of 70%; this will be fixed in an upcoming PTR patch

Demon Hunter

• Embodiment of the Marauder
  • (4) Set
    • Sentries deal 400% 100% increased damage and cast Elemental Arrow, Chakram, Impale, Multishot, and Cluster Arrow when you do
  • (6) Set
    • Your primary skills, Elemental Arrow, Chakram, Impale, Multishot, Cluster Arrow, Companions, and Vengeance deal 1200% 2100% 2400% increased damage for every active Sentry

Monk

• Shenlong's Spirit
  • The damage of your Spirit Generators is increased by 1.5% 2% for each point of Spirit you have
  • When reaching maximum Spirit, all damage is increased by 150% 200%, but you no longer passively regenerate Spirit and 65 Spirit is drained every second until you run out of Spirit
• Necromancer
  • Pestilence Master’s Shroud
    • (4) Set
      • Each enemy you hit with Bone Spear, Corpse Lance or Corpse Explosion reduces your damage taken by 2%, up to a maximum of 50%. Lasts 15 seconds.

Witch Doctor

• Helltooth Harness
  • (6) Set
    • Note: This set bonus is being temporarily disabled to fix an issue with the set. It will be re-enabled in a later PTR patch.
• Raiment of the Jade Harvester
  • (6) Set
    • Soul Harvest reduces damage taken by 50% for 12 seconds and consumes your damage over time effects on enemies, instantly dealing 300 1200 seconds worth of remaining damage.

Wizard

• Vyr’s Amazing Arcana
  • (6) Set
    • You also gain Archon stacks when you hit with an Archon ability. Archon stacks now also reduce damage taken by 0.15% and have their damage bonus increased to 18% 25%
• Chantodo's Resolve
  • (2) Set
    • Every second while in Archon form you expel a Wave of Destruction, dealing 350% 600% 1000% weapon damage to enemies within 30 yards

ADVENTURE MODE

Rifts

• Increased the amount of experience and Rift progress granted by Blazing Constructs
• Increased the amount of experience and Rift progress granted by Smoldering Constructs

Bug Fixes

• (PTR Only) Fixed an issue with Battle Rage - Bloodshed where the damage from critical hits was not being scaled by the proc coefficient of the power doing damage
• Fixed an issue where the advanced tooltip for Bone Armor - Dislocation did not correctly state the rune did Poison damage
• Fixed an issue where Furious Charge would inherit the elemental damage type on your weapon when Vile Ward was equipped, as opposed to the damage type of the rune you chose

[Valhalen 1,484]

Any idea how long until this patch goes Live? All those buffs made me hyped to play D3 again. Gonna dust off my Leapquake Barbarian and Uliana Monk.

[Yridaa 490]

22 minutes ago, Valhalen said:

Any idea how long until this patch goes Live? All those buffs made me hyped to play D3 again. Gonna dust off my Leapquake Barbarian and Uliana Monk.

Balance patches for D3 of course have a huge impact on leaderboards and such. This means that patches like these will always come shortly after the current season has ended, give or take a week. Seasons typically last 3 months and typically there's a 2-3 week window where there is no currently active season. Taking this into consideration:

 

Season 11 started 20 July and will end ~October 20th

Patch 2.6.1 will be live ~ October 27th

Season 12 starts ~November 8th

Seasons always start on a Friday (With the exception of the Necromancer season in 2.6 because they wanted to get things smooth on a thursday)

 

This is speculation on my part, but a very well informed one, based on results gained in the past seasons. I am however still likely to be off about a week or so, because it is never set in stone and it is an estimation. It is extremely unlikely for any of the dates mentioned to be more or less than two weeks difference. Regardless, it is not factual and you shouldn't treat it as such (Don't want to be disappointing anyone!)

[Kaelos 74]

I wish Sentries be main source of dmg in Marauder build instead of just dmg buffers to main skill

[Sharknad0 67]

I am so stoked on these changes. Wish they would have got this all done for the current season, but I get how difficult that could have been with the Necromancer release. Nevertheless, these are going to be great changes. Think I will finally try a Barb.

[albabe 33]

I'm not too sure about all these buffs.  This is on the verge of ridiculousness.

I LOVE the idea that a lot of older builds are gonna be viable again, but from what i can see, some of these Characters will be Mega-Powerful after the Patch.  And personally, i like to play the lower tier Characters because it's actually harder in T13.

Personally, I like to have some serious Opposition playing D3 and this will make it pretty boring.

If they don't add a few Torment Levels, then T13 will be MUCH TOO Easy... and boring - And then the Endgame will be all about redundant GRs and that's even more boring.

[SangFroidy 3]

Missed:

In the 3rd round of PTR updates - Pestilence 4p got changed to read

• Each enemy you hit with Bone Spear, Corpse Lance or Corpse Explosion reduces your damage taken by 2%, up to a maximum of 50%. Lasts 15 seconds.

 

and the prior update refused to run on XP.

Edited September 3, 2017 by SangFroidy
Found this in eariler patch notes, but hadn't noticed until this patch

[Valks 2,375]

I'm happy they're finally re-evaluation rift content progress contributions. Some mobs give nothing for how long it takes to kill them, they just become an instant skip if they're in a pack so much of the time :/

[albabe 33]

On 8/31/2017 at 7:01 AM, Valhalen said:

Any idea how long until this patch goes Live? All those buffs made me hyped to play D3 again. Gonna dust off my Leapquake Barbarian and Uliana Monk.

Me too!  I hope we can re-roll our old gear into new gear... or will we need to?

I think we may have already talked about this, but your Avatar is Rocket Raccoon, isn't it?

[Valks 2,375]

On 9/12/2017 at 1:34 AM, albabe said:

Me too!  I hope we can re-roll our old gear into new gear... or will we need to?

I think we may have already talked about this, but your Avatar is Rocket Raccoon, isn't it?

I'm not him, but it is :p