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Diablo 3 patch 2.1.1 arrives, bringing big changes for gamblers

Diablo 3 patch 2.1.1

Diablo III patch 2.1.1 is upon us, bringing with it a slew of changes including class and pet tweaks, bug fixes and an increase to the amount of crafting materials dropped by Rift Guardians in Adventure Mode. 

Notably, the cost of gambling by spending Blood Shards at Kadala, the Horadrim merchant in Adventure Mode, has increased. But to balance this out, the chances of getting a legendary item from her have increased. Blizzard says it’s a quality of life improvement, though it’s been the cause of many threads popping up on the forums. 

“The Kadala change is primarily meant to be a quality of life change for players,” explained Diablo game designer Travis Day. “Having to fill up your inventory and run back and forth to the blacksmith could be a mildly cumbersome experience and we wanted to improve that. All items on Kadala had their cost increased, when this was done the chance for her to give you items was also increased but by more than the cost justified. For the same number of shards as before players will now walk away with 1/3 more legendary items.”

This is also why Rift Guardians will now drop more crafting materials. Players get crafting materials from Kadala, but obviously those gains will now be reduced, so the increased drops elsewhere balance this out.

“The overall impact should be that you are getting roughly the same amount of crafting materials, except instead of getting primarily yellow mats like Kadala gives you, the mats on the Guardians could be white, blue, or yellow. This should help even out the quantities of assorted material types instead of flooding players with just one type like Kadala was inclined to do.”

If the changes do end up having a negative impact, Day promises that further adjustments to the drops from Guardians will be made.

Take a gander at the full patch notes on the next page.

Classes

  • General
    • Pets
      • Philosophy
        • We want pet survivability to be roughly equivalent to the player that summoned them
      • Many monster attacks that are intended to be avoided by players, and weren’t already dealing reduced damage to pets, now deal significantly less damage to pets
      • Bug Fixes
        • Pets are now properly affected by Shield Pylons
  • Crusader
    • Active Skills
      • Shield Bash
        • Can now be interrupted during the hit animation
  • Witch Doctor
    • Active Skills
      • Fetish Army
        • Fetish Life has been greatly increased
        • Fetish movement speed has been significantly increased
        • Fetish leash range has been slightly increased
      • Gargantuan
        • Gargantuan is now summoned at the location of your mouse cursor
        • Summon animation speed has been increased
      • Spirit Walk
        • No longer cancels early when the physical body that is left behind takes enough damage
      • Summon Zombie Dogs
        • Zombie Dog Life has been greatly increased
    • Passive Skills
      • Fetish Sycophants
        • Fetish Life has been greatly increased
        • Fetish movement speed has been significantly increased
        • Fetish leash range has been slightly increased
    • User Interface
      • Fetish Army and Fetish Sycophants portrait icons should now display more fitting names on mouseover

Items

  • Class-Specific Legendary Items
    • Wizard
      • Firebird’s Finery
      • The infinite DoT debuff should now have a unique effect when it is applied
  • Legendary Gems
    • Boon of the Hoarder
      • The number of Gold piles that explode from enemies on kill has been reduced
      • To compensate, the amount of Gold in each pile has been increased
      • The total amount of Gold dropped remains unchanged, but this will noticeably reduce screen clutter
  • Bug Fixes
    • The Moratorium secondary power can now be triggered by assists
    • The Bane of the Trapped damage increase will now properly applied to Frozen enemies
    • The Gem of Efficacious Toxin poison DoT can now properly be applied by pet attacks

Adventure mode

  • Rift Guardians and Greater Rift Guardians now drop more crafting materials
  • Infernal Machine
    • In multiplayer games, the Key of Bones, Key of Gluttony, and Key of War will now be considered group drops
      • This means that, instead of players having an individual chance to find a key, that chance is now exists at the party level
      • If a Key of Bones, a Key of Gluttony, or a Key of War drops, it will drop for everyone in the party at the time
  • Greater Rifts
    • The Rift of Trials has received numerous adjustments in an effort to more accurately assess an appropriate level of Greater Rift
    • Large Aqueduct and Sewer maps will no longer show up in Greater Rifts
  • Kadala
    • Philosophy
      • While Kadala is doing a great job of giving players more control over finding specific items, we felt the current experience was a bit cumbersome and inconvenient
      • As a result, we’re working to reduce the frequency at which players need to run between Kadala and the Blacksmith to salvage unwanted items
    • The cost to purchase items from Kadala has been greatly increased
    • The chance for Kadala to drop a Legendary item has also been greatly increased
  • Bug Fixes
    • Fixed an issue that could cause Greater Rift Guardians to sometimes drop multiple of the same Legendary Gem

Crafting

  • Mystic
    • Enchanting
      • Philosophy
        • We want players to be able to more reliably add sockets to their jewelry in order to enjoy Legendary Gems
        • We still have long term plans to provide more outlets for excess gems and more ways to farm gems that a player needs; however, since those changes are further down the road, we wanted to improve the quality of life of Seasonal and Non-Seasonal players alike by making it easier to add a socket to your Rings and Amulets
      • The cost to enchant jewelry has been reduced from a Flawless Imperial gem to an Imperial gem

Monsters

  • The Electrified monster affix now has a short internal cooldown
  • The damage of The Butcher’s Fan of Spears attack has been slightly reduced
  • The range of the Charging Beasts’ Charge attack has been slightly reduced
  • Plague Nest Bats have had their health globe drop rate significantly decreased
  • Nephalem Rifts and Greater Rifts
    • Maggot Broods no longer start out burrowed in Nephalem Rifts and Greater Rifts
    • Sand Dwellers no longer start out burrowed in Nephalem Rifts and Greater Rifts
    • Demonic Hellflyers now run away less frequently and no longer ambush players from the air in Nephalem Rifts and Greater Rifts
    • Ghosts now run away less frequently and no longer fly through walls in Nephalem Rifts and Greater Rifts
    • Rockworms can no longer spawn in Nephalem Rifts and Greater Rifts