Two New Patches to Crown The Start of Diablo 3’s Season 19

Since the addition of Seasons that came along in Reaper of Souls, Diablo 3 has gone quite far in Season numbers. It consolidates its 19th season, and it is followed by two new patches. The 19th Season in Diablo 3 is probably the most exciting season to date. It started on November 22 at 8 PM EDT and includes a brand new buff called Pandemonium.

This seasonal buff is very exciting because it’s strapped to the killstreaks. Killstreaks that are achieved in a short time will be dependable on whether or not the buffs kick in. After 15 kills chickens will be rushing the enemies while exploding upon collision. The killstreak spans from 15 to 1000, even though the 1000th kill remains undiscovered so that players could rise a surprise.

Alongside that, new cosmetic seasonal rewards are emerging as we’re moving through its rough start, while classes and sets are focusing balance tweaks. According to the official Diablo 3 website, the following has been changed.

General

• Greater Rift Keystones are now subject to vacuum pick-up
• A note regarding the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) has been added to the Options -> Privacy menu, clearly stating we do not sell account information. For more information regarding the CCPA, please see here (Console Only).

Seasons

• Developer Note: One of the biggest pieces of feedback from Season 18’s buff was that the Triune bonus didn’t stick with your character while you adventured. With Season 19, we’ve altered course as well as upped the ante by experimenting with new mechanics to add an element of both chaos and power to the battlefield. It should feel a bit like Pandemonium, and it may be a consideration whether or not you want to reset your total kill streak for a particular killstreak bonus versus continuously maintain the overall effect (especially as the highest level killstreak rewards will be harder to leverage in situations like Greater Rifts). Killstreaks with higher kill count requirements are more powerful, and we’re looking forward to seeing what players think of and do with them!
• The buff for Season 19, the Season of Eternal Conflict, has been added
  • Pandemonium
    • For the duration of the Season, all players will have a stacking buff that that persists as long as you have hit or killed a monster within the last 5 seconds
    • Each stack gives .05 movement speed and .1% bonus damage. This bonus caps at 50% movement and 100% damage (1000 stacks)
    • In addition, after reaching a certain number of kills in a row, a power is unleashed, dealing an amount of scaling damage based on player level and difficulty or Greater Rift level:
      • 15 Kills: Exploding Chickens seek and destroy
      • 30 Kills: A wide Frost Nova freezes enemies
      • 50 Kills: Corpses rain from the sky
      • 100 Kills: Five massive energy twisters are unleashed
      • 150 Kills: Dark Geysers form beneath enemies
      • 200 Kills: Treasure chests fall from the sky
      • 300 Kills: A ring of fire engulfs everything
      • 400 Kills: Meteors hail from above
      • 500 Kills: Angels descend upon the battlefield to fight for your cause
        • Angels should no longer one-shot Rift Guardians.
      • 1000 Kills: ???
    • Powers are tracked at a group level; this means only one power can be active in play at a time, regardless of the number of players in a group
• Two new Seasonal rewards are available for players who fully complete the Season 19 Journey: the Valor Portrait Frame and the Angelic Treasure Goblin pet
• Lilith’s Embrace: This exclusive pair of cosmetic wings are now available for all players who purchased a Virtual Ticket. Hail Lilith. (PC Only)

Items

• Developer Note: With Patch 2.6.7, we are beginning to roll out new class sets for every class in Diablo III. For the Season of Valor, we’re focusing on the two classes that embody the Light and wield some form of Holy elemental damage: Crusader and Monk. You’ll also find a handful of retuned or newly added Legendary powers intended to synergize with the new class sets. We did a lot of community research into which skills were most requested by players as well as most underrepresented in current builds, and we hope you’re as excited as we are for these new gameplay options. The other class sets will be coming in later patches, so if your class isn’t represented this time around, fret not—they’re coming in a future patch!
• You’ll also notice a significant number of Barbarian item changes in this patch. While the Barbarian class set will be coming at a later date, we have very much heard the War Cry from our dedicated Barbarian community and implemented a number of changes heavily inspired by extremely thorough feedback. While not every suggestion has been taken at a 1:1 parity, the thoughtful analysis helped guide us to changes we could implement in this patch. Thanks very much to the community members who expressed their concerns in a respectful, constructive manner. It’s very helpful, and we greatly appreciate the thought and effort that went into making your voices heard!
• New Crusader Set: Aegis of Valor
  • 2-Piece Bonus: The charged bolts from Fist of the Heavens has a chance to cast another Fist of the Heavens Attacking with Fist of the Heavens empowers you, allowing Heaven’s Fury to deal 100% increased damage for 5 seconds. Stacks up to 3 times (multiplicative).
  • 4-Piece Bonus: Hitting with Fist of the Heavens generates 5 Wrath and reduces damage taken by 1% for 5 seconds. Stacks up to 50 times
  • 6-Piece Bonus: Increase the damage of Fist of the Heavens and Heaven’s Fury by 10,000% 20,000%
  • Developer’s Note: Thank you so much for your thorough feedback and testing on the 2.6.7 PTR! We decided to add Heaven’s Fury to the mix based on popular request as well as because we agree that it matches the theme and adds more gameplay complexity. There is also still room for tweaks and additional iteration in the future, and we’re glad we were able to introduce a set so many of you are excited to use!
• New Monk Set: Patterns of Justice
  • 2-Piece Bonus: Sweeping Wind gains the effect of every rune and movement speed is increased by 5% for each stack of Sweeping Wind.
  • 4-Piece Bonus: Each enemy within Sweeping Wind increases your movement speed by 5%. Stacks up to 10 times. Attacking with Tempest Rush reduces your damage taken by 50% and increases Spirit Regeneration by 50.
  • 6-Piece Bonus: Hitting with Tempest Rush while Sweeping Wind is active will temporarily increase the size of Sweeping Wind after hitting over 30 times within a short period. Sweeping Wind damage is increased by 10,000% 15,000%
  • Developer’s Note: Thank you so much for your thorough feedback and testing on the 2.6.7 PTR! We heard Monk requests for additional damage reduction and to better integrate Tempest Rush as a skill. We hope the result makes for a more survivable and engaging build that still captures that rush of Holy Justice sweeping through crowds of dastardly demons.
• Darklight
  • Fist of the Heavens has a [45-60%] 100% chance to be cast twice.
  • Additional Legendary Power: Increases the damage of Fist of the Heavens by [200-250%][800-1000%].
• Eye of the Storm
  • New Legendary Power: When Sweeping Wind hits exactly 1 enemy, its damage is increased by 100%.
  • Developer’s Note: With the redesign of Patterns of Justice, there was less need for this item’s introduction. We’ve removed it for now and may consider adding it (or possibly a different Legendary power) at a later date.
• Vengeful Wind
  • Increases the maximum stack count of Sweeping Wind by [6-7] 10
  • Additional Legendary Power: Increases the damage of Sweeping Wind by [250-300%] [600-800%].
• Won Khim Lau
  • New Legendary Power: Hitting with Tempest Rush will activate Cyclone Strike, and both skills deal [500-600%] increased damage.
• Chantodo’s Resolve
  • The scaled attack speed damage bonus to Wave of Destruction has been reduced
  • Developer Note: This is a reactive adjustment from an earlier change to how Wave of Destruction receives a bonus from Attack Speed. The buff that resulted from that change was more than we expected, so we’re reigning it in.
• Wrath of the Wastes
  • 6-Piece Bonus: The damage bonus now also applies to Rend
• Lamentation
  • Additional Legendary Power: Increases the damage of Rend by [150-200%]
  • Developer Note: While we were very happy with how much better Barbarians are performing, we are concerned we may have overshot it. By removing just one silo’d addition, we can observe how the class performance goes for Season 19 and consider re-adding this change in the future. Remember we still have a patch coming up where Barb will be one of the focused classes, so there will be plenty of time to revisit if necessary!
• Ambo’s Pride
  • New Legendary Power: Attacking with Whirlwind also applies Rend and the total damage of Rend is dealt over 1 second
• Remorseless
  • Hammer of the Ancients has a [25-30%] chance to summon an Ancient for 20 seconds
  • New Legendary Power: While both Wrath of the Berserker and Call of the Ancients are active, Hammer of the Ancients deals [200-250%] more damage.
• Fjord Cutter
  • You are surrounded by a Chilling Aura when attacking.
  • New Legendary Power: Seismic Slam attacks 50% faster and also deals 100-150% increased damage against Slowed or Chilled enemies
• Bracers of Destruction
  • Seismic Slam deals [400-500%] increased damage to the first 5 10 enemies it hits.
• Fury of the Ancients
  • Call of the Ancients gains the effect of the Ancients’ Fury rune and your Ancients attack 100% faster
• Bone Ringer
  • Now has a cap of 60 stacks.
  • Developer Note: We never intended for this item to be used in a way where you farm stacks for an egregious amount of time (5+ minutes) and then watch all their health disappear in less than a second. It’s not an engaging style of gameplay, and we don’t want that experience to be the best way to play the Necromancer.
• Legacy of Dreams
  • This gem is now more likely to drop from a Greater Rift Guardian

Monsters

• Blighter
  • Blighter’s Poison Tentacles’ Area of Effect now hits less frequently, but at higher damage, when attacking players

Bug Fixes

• Wizard
  • Archon
    • Fixed an issue where certain item bonuses (such as from the item Deathwish) would persist between changing forms to/from Archon
      • Developer’s Note: A few patches ago, we stated we were going to continue to observe Bazooka Wizard to see its performance over time. Back then, we thought it would require a high level of skill to execute that would make it relatively less utilized as a hard, but rewarding, gameplay option. That hasn’t been the case, as many feel it’s too mandatory. In the context of this and other changes (like Bone Ringer and Chantodo’s), we think it makes sense to make this change now.
• Spite
  • Fixed an issue where casting Restless Giant would cause the 200% physical bonus damage to fail to apply when the Gargantuan enraged
• Squirt’s Necklace
  • Fixed an issue where some ground effects were causing the Squirt’s Necklace buff to fall off despite being shielded