d2r Diablo 2 PTR Patch 2.5 Notes: September 15th

[Staff 869]

Blizzard released a new Patch 2.5 update for Diablo 2: Resurrected on the PTR. Testing will be available until September 19. Ladder Season 2 will begin on October 6.

(Source)

Update on September 15: Content changes have gone live for the PTR 2.5 testing period. These changes are indicated in red text. The PTR will end on September 19 at 10:00 a.m. PDT.

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Welcome back!

Our next testing period, PTR 2.5, goes live on August 25 at 10 a.m. PDT. We’re excited to share that for this PTR we will be debuting Terror Zones—an experimental feature—and introducing a variety of bug fixes to address feedback the community has provided us.

The flames of the Burning Hells have forecasted the future, hero: Ladder Season Two will begin on October 6. Additional details on Ladder Season Two, including launch timing, will be communicated in an upcoming Diablo II: Resurrected blog. We cannot wait for players to begin the race to collect loads of experience and loot while slaying demons and climbing the leaderboard!

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Quest Log

Terror Zones

New Unique Grand Charms

New PTR Character Templates

PTR Focus and Details

Patch Notes

How to Participate

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Terror Zones

The journey to level 99 is a celebrated experience for players and quite the milestone if achieved—a rite of passage, even. We want to offer an alternative to repeatedly farming Baal, Diablo, or Nihlathak. We also want the journey to level 99 to be accessible to a larger population of players, full of variety, and most importantly, challenging—this is where Terror Zones come in. As we get into details, please note that players can choose to opt-out of Terror Zones if desired.

When playing a Terror Zone-enabled game, every hour, the armies of the Burning Hells will focus their demonic might on specific zones, terrorizing them. The monsters in these zones will be at least two levels higher than your current level or their original level, up to a maximum per difficulty. The experience received and the loot dropped by killing a terrorized monster will be based on this new level. In addition, terrorized monsters will also grant additional experience points.

Here are the level details for each monster type per difficulty:

Normal

• Base: +2 levels up to level 45
• Champion: +4 levels up to level 47
• Unique: +5 levels up to level 48

Nightmare

• Base: +2 levels up to level 71
• Champion: +4 levels up to level 73
• Unique: +5 levels up to level 74

Hell

• Base: +2 levels up to level 96
• Champion: +4 levels up to level 98
• Unique: +5 levels up to level 99

The base player level used for the above calculations are taken from the creator of the game. If the host leaves the game, a new player will be selected for the base.

Upon entering a Terror Zone-enabled game, you'll be informed of the current terrorized areas through a message sent to you via the Chat Box. When the time for new terrorized zones draws near, you will be informed of the impending changes via the Chat Box.

In addition, you will be informed that you’re entering a terrorized area by several indicators:

• Unique iconography next to a terrorized monster's name
• On-screen text and messaging
• Special audio cue
• In-game text on the auto-map

Here’s a complete list of all the zones that can become terrorized during the PTR:

Act I

Blood Moor and Den of Evil

Cold Plains and The Cave

Burial Grounds, The Crypt, and the Mausoleum

Dark Wood

The Forgotten Tower

Jail

Cathedral and Catacombs

The Pit

Tristram

Moo Moo Farm

Act II

Sewers

Rocky Waste and Stony Tomb

Dry Hills and Halls of the Dead

Far Oasis

Lost City, Valley of Snakes, and Claw Viper Temple

Arcane Sanctuary

Tal Rasha's Tombs

Act III

Spider Forest and Spider Cavern

Flayer Jungle and Flayer Dungeon

Kurast Bazaar, Ruined Temple, and Disused Fane

Kurast Sewers

Travincal

Durance of Hate

 

Act IV

Outer Steppes and Plains of Despair

River of Flame / City of the Dammed

Chaos Sanctuary

Act V

Bloody Foothills

Frigid Highlands

Glacial Trail

Crystalline Passage and Frozen River

Arreat Plateau

Nihlathak's Temple, Halls of Anguish, Halls of Pain, and Halls of Vaught

Ancient's Way and Icy Cellar

Worldstone Keep, Throne of Destruction, and Worldstone Chamber

The following zones can now become terrorized:

• Act I: The Pit
• Act IV: City of the Dammed

The following zones can no longer become terrorized:

• Act II: Maggot Lair and Harem/Palace Cellar
• Act III: Lower Kurast

The Act I: Black Marsh zone was accidentally added to the list of terrorized zones and has been removed. This zone was never able to be terrorized. We apologize for any confusion.

Developer Comments: The dominant driver of these changes was mob density. Fully clearing a zone is more beneficial in a Terrorized zone, but this becomes less efficient if the density of a zone is too low. Rather than adjust mob density, which can have ramifications on melee builds, we opted instead to remove zones with lighter mob density. The removal of Maggot Lair and Harem/Palace Cellar was also to address Terror Zone playability in close quarters zones with doors. While zones with doors have always been a bit quirky, we do not wish to change them, opting instead to maintain their original design feeling. Instead, we have added two new zones that promote our intended benefits to players when terrorized.

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New Sundered Charms

In Hell difficulty, many monsters receive resistance to specific damage types. If their resistance increases above 100%, that monster is then immune to a specific damage type. Because there are only a handful of ways to reduce a monster’s immunity, only a minute portion of hero builds can successfully farm all zones in Diablo II: Resurrected. We realize that this can create scenarios where certain builds are unable to take full advantage of the current Terror Zone, thus missing out on the experience gains, and most importantly, the fun of these zones.

To promote increased class build diversity, we are introducing six new Unique Grand Charms that allow the player to break specific monster immunity types while the charm is in their inventory.

You’ll notice a new keyword below called Sunder. This keyword means that if a monster has immunity to a specific damage type, their resistance will be reduced to 95% regardless of what their starting resistance percentage was—breaking their immunity and allowing damage of that type to be dealt to them. Sunder is applied before other resistance reducing modifiers and only affects non-players. These new unique charms will only drop from Terrorized monsters of Champion, Unique, Superunique, or Boss difficulty. There is one tradeoff the comes with the new Unique Grand Charms—while they reduce a monster’s resistance, they also reduce your resistance to the same element, allowing you to receive more damage of that type. During the PTR, Sundering Charms will not drop from monsters and can only be tested through the PTR character templates mentioned later in the blog.

The Black Cleft

• Monster Magic Immunity if Sundered
• Magic Resist –50%

The Bone Break

• Monster Physical Immunity is Sundered
• Physical Damage Received Increased by 25%

The Cold Rupture

• Monster Cold Immunity is Sundered
• Cold Resist –75%

The Crack of the Heavens

• Monster Lightning Immunity is Sundered
• Lightning Resist –75%

The Flame Rift

• Monster Fire Immunity is Sundered
• Fire Resist –75%

The Rotting Fissure

• Monster Poison Immunity is Sundered
• Poison Resist –75%

*Please note that during the duration of the PTR, changes to the behaviors of Terror Zones and Unique Grand Charms may occur based on learnings from testing and player feedback.

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New PTR Character Templates

Starting today, September 15, all characters made during the PTR until now will be removed and replaced with 13 Level 85-character template options for players to use during the PTR's duration. Each character template is equipped with one of the new Sundered Charms so players may experience how they work firsthand. Here is a complete list of the character templates you can use:

• Freezing Arrow Amazon - Cold Sunder
• Fire Arrow Amazon - Fire Sunder
• Frenzy Barbarian - Physical Sunder
• Fire Claw Druid - Fire Sunder
• Fire Druid - Fire Sunder
• Bone Necromancer - Magic Sunder
• Poison Necromancer - Poison Sunder
• Hammerdin (Blessed Hammer Paladin) - Magic Sunder
• Holy Fire Paladin - Fire Sunder
• Tessladin (Holy Shock Paladin) - Lightning Sunder
• Cold Sorceress - Cold Sunder
• Fire Sorceress - Fire Sunder
• Lightning Sorceress - Lightning Sunder

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PTR Focus and Details

To support player testing and content exploring, we will be providing character templates in a variety of popular builds at varying levels. As the PTR progresses, please be aware there may be periodic maintenance, outages, or updates based on player feedback. Any changes implemented during this PTR period to Terror Zones or other gameplay aspects are not set in stone. We are testing Terror Zones as a new, experimental feature with the expressed desire to inject additional fun into Diablo II: Resurrected. To ensure Terror Zones provide an experience that best serves our players, we will need your assistance and urge you to provide any feedback you may have.

There will be an in-game survey located on the Diablo II: Resurrected main menu screen where you can provide feedback around Terror Zones. Alternatively, you can leave your feedback in the PTR Feedback forum. If you discover any bugs, please report them in the PTR Bug Report forum.

Gameplay/Quality of Life

• Added additional warning text to the mercenary confirmation prompt if your previous mercenary still has items equipped.
• Damage value for the Paladin’s Thorns aura is now present on the character menu.
• Dead Finger Mages now reset correctly to their original state when revived by Necromancers.
• Fixed an issue where casting delays could desync at very high ping.
• Fixed an issue where monster unique mods were triggering from another unique mod's trigger. For example, monsters that were both lightning and fire enchanted created an explosion every time they were put into hit recovery (Ex: repeatedly hit by Warcry).
• Fixed a rare issue where item names on the ground would erratically flicker and shift while pathing around them.
• Fixed an issue where players and monsters were able to walk through doors that visually looked closed.
• Fixed an issue where certain Rune Words could not be repaired in the same game session they were created.
• Fixed an issue where loading a character on a console that was created on PC was causing texture and lighting issues on console.
• Fixed an issue that would occur when binding a skill to a multi-key binding (Ex: Ctrl + X, Alt + X) the action bound to the first key became unbound from that key.
• Fixed an issue where the game name and password were not properly updating and displaying in-game when toggling the setting for showing it.
• Fixed an issue where updates to stats, skills, or quests were displaying when no updates were available.
• Fixed an issue where hardcore character names were not displaying in red text on the character list.
• Fixed an issue with the Legacy Graphics gamble refresh icon containing graphical artifacts and corruption.
• Fixed an issue where single and dual-wielding basic attacks with Claw weapons could have inconsistent attack speeds.
• Fixed an issue where flags associated with previous characters (Ladder, Hardcore, and Classic) would persist for newly created characters in the Legacy Graphics Character Creation Screen.
• Fixed an issue where the “buy” button legend in the vendor window would not display on the first weapons tab.
• Fixed an issue where certain VFX were causing graphical corruption when fighting Uber Diablo.
• Fixed an issue where Iron Golems could lose the aura granted by the item they were created with when the Golem was frozen.
• Chosen game settings now persist in lobby game creation and filtering rather than being reset.
• Fixed an issue where Iron Golems created in a previous game would disappear instead of teleporting to you.
• Fixed an issue where performing a weapon swap during a trade would sometimes freeze the game.
• Fixed an issue where visuals effects granted by set bonuses would sometimes toggle on and off.
• Fixed an issue where environmental screen-space VFX were not playing.
• Fixed an issue where Iron Golems summoned through a charge of the skill (Ex: granted by Metalgrid) would disappear when performing an inventory update.
• Fixed an issue where Iron Golems created by a charged skill would not save between games.
• Fixed an issue where players on console and controller would sometimes get the red-flash indicator for health loss while performing an inventory update.
• Fixed an issue where the Horadric Cube could not be quick-dropped if there were items in it when playing on console or with a controller.
• Fixed an issue where similar items weren't grouping together when auto-populating into the belt while using a controller.
• Fixed various issues when quick-moving a belt with items in the additional belt slots it provides while using a controller.
• Fixed an issue where you sometimes couldn't quick-equip an item that has its requirement met by another equipped item.
• Fixed an issue where an item with requirement reductions would sometimes still show as requirements not met when equipped on a mercenary.
• Fixed a desync with mana values when the consumption and regeneration of mana happened in a short frame window.
• Fixed an issue where Quick Cast would sometimes restore the previous skill to the wrong mouse button.
• Act V Dual-Wielding mercenaries now accurately animates two attack swings instead of one.
• Fixed an issue where there were no corresponding Suicide Minion versions of the three guest Minion variants. These guest Minions will no longer visually transform into a skeleton and continuously stack explosion damage when whipped by Nihlathak or an Overseer.
• Fixed an issue where Fist of the Heavens could unintentionally be used when it was bound on controller or assigned to left click on M+KB.
• Fixed an issue where pets summoned by "chance to cast" skills on items would disappear after performing an inventory update.
• Fixed an issue where Ravens summoned by charged skills would disappear after a few seconds.
• Necromancer
  • Difficulty penalties for life drain now apply to the Blood Golem's attacks.
  • Fixed an issue where Blood Golem was not correctly stealing life from a PvP opponent.
• Fixed an issue where the experience sharing calculation for an eight-player party would rarely overflow and award less experience than normal.

Localization

• Updated gender pronoun strings that referred to the player from “his / her” to the neutral counterpart “their.”
• Added a prefix for online Uber Diablo messages received in offline games.
• Added localization translations for the automap tooltip.
• Fixed an issue where the maximum gold in-game text for Polish, Russian, Mexican Spanish, and Portuguese languages were exceeding their bounds in the UI.
• Fixed a variety of equipped skill names that were exceeding their bounds in the UI for the Russian and Polish languages.
• Removed unnecessary spacing between tabs on PC in the quest log, waypoints, and player stash UI screens when playing with a controller while using the large font option.
• Changed the date formatting for Japan to be displayed as Year / Month / Day.
• Fixed a typo in the Japanese translations for quick equip and unequip to mercenary tooltip.

PC-Specific Fixes

• Added functionality to revoke and undo friend rejection so it’s no longer a permanent rejection.
• Fixed an issue where the "/friends list" chat command was being truncated after 256 characters.
• Removed the ability to bind the Print Screen key.
• Fixed an issue where if the players opened chat after dying with Legacy Graphics active, all controls stopped functioning.
• Fixed an issue if a linked item in chat exceeded one line, the item was unable to be selected and shown.
• Fixed an issue where if a player entered the lobby, then entered a game, the difficulty selection would be blank upon returning to the lobby.
• Removed the scroll bar and buttons from the autosuggest menu for chat commands.
• Fixed an issue where if a skill was bound, then the key was removed from the skill binding, the unbound skill would still display without a binding.
• Improved the scrolling on the ladder season, ladder type, and class drop-down in the ladder tab in the online lobby.
• Fixed a tooltip that incorrectly stated “Show game name and password” to correctly state “Show game name.”
• Fixed an issue where the latency indicator visual in the lobby was off center.
• Fixed an issue where if the player activates controller mode while in the lobby, the latency indicator visual would disappear.
• Skills can now always be set to the left or right slots, regardless of if you meet the requirements to use them.
• Fixed an issue where rings were always quick-equipped to the right-hand slot, even if the left-hand slot was open.
• M+KB can now quick-equip and quick-unequip items to and from their character and mercenary.
• Fixed an issue where dragging an item onto a mercenary's portrait was not swapping their currently equipped item.
• Text-to-speech now uses Voice (installed on Windows) which corresponds to the voice language selected (Set in Battle.net launcher).
• Text-to-speech option reads out all chat commands regardless of channel.
• Text-to-speech, when reading an item link, will now only read the item text instead of including various numbers and letters.

Stability

• Fixed a crash on PC that occurred when resizing the client window while in the lobby.
• Improved game join and game create backend request for a smoother player experience.
• Various game stability improvements.

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How To Participate

To participate in the public test, you must have a Diablo II: Resurrected game license attached to a Battle.net account in good standing (Ex: one that hasn't been suspended or banned). In addition, you will also need to download and install the Blizzard Battle.net desktop app if you have not already done so.

• Step 1: Restart the Battle.net desktop app.

   

• Step 2: Navigate to the Diablo II: Resurrected tab on the left-hand menu.

   

• Step 3: On the Diablo II: Resurrected screen, there is a drop-down menu right above the "Play" button (note that this may say "Install" if you do not have Diablo II: Resurrected currently installed). Select "PTR: Diablo II: Resurrected" from this drop-down menu before proceeding.

   

• Step 4: Click Install to begin the installation process.

   

Your PTR account will be created automatically if you do not already have one. The PTR is available in all supported languages, and accounts from all regions are eligible to participate. For additional assistance with installing and launching the PTR, click here.

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Thank You for Playing

Our team is incredibly thankful for your continued support and collaboration. We look forward to seeing you continue to slay demons in Diablo II: Resurrected for many years to come!

If you want to learn more about Diablo II: Resurrected, check out our website here, or for real-time updates, follow our official Twitter @Diablo.

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