Diablo 3 patch 2.04 changes up the classes

I’ve just recently started playing Diablo 3, on console. And I’m freakin’ loving it. It’s a great game, and beautifully balanced and it has me excited for the console release of Reaper of Souls. PC gamers already have that experience. And they’re also getting a new patch to rebalance the game.

Here’s a (rather long) taste of how the classes will be changed in the game, according to Battle.Net. Tweaks and changes here and there, but the new Crusader class is getting the bulk of the patch.

Barbarian

Many skills that spend Fury feel great, but when it comes time to generate Fury the single-target options don’t feel meaty compared to the generators that can hit more than one target at a time. As a result, we are increasing the potency of those single-target generators to be more competitive.

• Active Skills
• Bash
• Increased base damage from 170% to 215% weapon damage
• Skill Rune: Clobber – Increased chance to stun for 1.5 seconds from 30% to 35%
• Skill Rune: Onslaught – Increased additional damage from 80% to 100% weapon damage
• Frenzy – Increased base damage from 120% to 155% weapon damage
• War Cry – Bug Fix: Fixed an issue preventing the 5 seconds of paused Fury degeneration after casting War Cry from working.
• Weapon Throw  – Increased base damage from 150% to 185% weapon damage
• Skill Rune: Mighty Throw – Increased damage from 210% to 270% weapon damage
• Skill Rune: Throwing Hammer – Increased chance to stun from 30% to 40%

Wizard

Two skills on the Wizard, Arcane Orb – Frozen Orb and Electrocute, have bugs with their implementation. Unfortunately, these bug fixes do have the side effect of weakening these skills. Ultimately, this brings these skills back in line with other Wizard skills, which is why we chose to implement these fixes.

Teleport is receiving some changes to allow it to work in more situations. The range is being increased overall for each cast of Teleport. As a result, the Wormhole rune is receiving a reduction in the number of successive casts that can be completed. Previously, you could cover 140 yards in 4 casts and now you can cover 150 yards in 3 casts. Overall, this is a buff.

• Active Skills
• Arcane Orb
• Frozen Orb
• Bug Fix: Fixed an issue where Frozen Orb was chilling for longer than intended
• Bug Fix: Fixed an issue where the Frozen Orb bonus damage radius was hitting a larger area than intended
• Electrocute Skill Rune – Surge of Power – Reduced proc scalar from 0.25 to 0.166
• Teleport  – Increased range from 35 to 50 yards
• Skill Rune: Wormhole – Reduced maximum allowed teleports from 4 to 3
• Passive Skills :Arcane Dynamo – Bug Fix: Arcane Dynamo now properly grants bonus damage to channeled spells
• Prodigy: Bug Fix – Fixed an issue where Electrocute was granting double the intended amount of Arcane Power when used with Prodigy

Demon Hunter

Many skills that spend Hatred feel great, but when it comes time to generate Hatred the single-target options don’t feel meaty compared to the generators that can hit more than one target at a time. As a result, we are increasing the potency of a few single-target generators to be more competitive.

• Evasive Fire – Increased base middle shot damage from 160% to 200% weapon damage
• Increased base side shot damage from 80% to 100% weapon damage
• Skill Rune: Covering Fire – Bug Fix: Fixed a bug causing the side shot damage to be lower than the amount listed
• Increased the damage of the side shots from 160% to 200% weapon damage
• Increased the range of the side shots from 50% to 80% to match the range of the middle shot
• Hungering Arrow –  Increased base damage from 125% to 155% weapon damage
• Sentry Skill Rune:Guardian Turret – The damage reduction from this rune will now be reflected in the Toughness display

Witch Doctor

The Witch Doctor was lacking good options for when they were low on Mana. A lack of attractive Signature spells results in builds primarily focused on sustaining Mana for long periods of time. We are increasing the potency of a few single-target Signature spells to be more competitive so that there are still aggressive options while waiting for Mana to regenerate.

Haunt has received some changes to provide a low-Mana option as well as to emphasize options for a damage-over-time (DOT) play style.

Poison Dart

• Increased base skill damage from 155% + 40% to 185% + 40% weapon damage
• Skill Rune: Splinters – Increased damage from 65% to 105% weapon damage per dart
• Skill Rune: Spined Dart – Increased amount of Mana returned from 25 to 50
• Skill Rune: Flaming Dart – Increased damage from 275% to 425% weapon damage over 4 seconds
• Damage over time from Flaming Dart can now stack with itself
• Skill Rune: Snake to the Face  – Stun chance increased from 25% to 33%-35%
• Corpse Spiders – Increased base skill damage from 216% to 324% weapon damage
• Skill Rune: Leaping Spiders – Increased damage from 238% to 383% weapon damage
• Skill Rune: Blazing Spiders – Increased damage from 259% to 400% weapon damage
• Firebomb Skill Rune: Pyrogeist – Increased damage from 560% to 880% weapon damage
• Haunt – Reduced Mana cost from 200 to 50, increased base skill damage from 1465% over 6 seconds to 4000% over 12 seconds

Monk

There are no Monk changes at this time. Monks are currently in a fairly comfortable place, but as with all aspects of the game, we will continue to monitor them and make changes as needed.

Crusader

Many of the Crusader’s Wrath spenders are below where we would like, while Heaven’s Fury – Fires of Heaven was over-performing. We are toning back Fires of Heaven while increasing the potency of most of the other Crusader spenders to encourage greater build exploration.

The single-target Wrath generator spells, Punish and Justice, don’t feel meaty compared to generators that can hit more than one target at a time. As a result, we are increasing the potency of Punish and Justice to be more competitive.

We are making a few adjustments to improve Steed Charge. The cooldown and duration of the skill have both been reduced. Overall, this makes the total uptime for the skill slightly higher and, more importantly, you’ll be able to hit the button more often. We’re removing the ability for Steed Charge to break stuns, which allows us to focus on Steed Charge being primarily a mobility skill that can still get you out of root effects, such as Jailer. We still want Steed Charge to be useful in combat, so we’re also increasing the damage on damage-focused runes.

• Crusaders now take 15% less damage from all sources
• Skill Rune: Rally – Fixed an issue where Rally would not reduce the cooldown of Condemn
• Blessed Hammer Skill Rune: Burning Wrath – Increased radius from 5 to 8 yards
• Increased pool damage from 95% to 150% weapon damage
• Skill Rune: Icebound Hammer – Bug Fix: Fixed an issue where Icebound Hammer wasn’t chilling enemies
• Icebound Hammer no longer goes away when exploding
• Blessed Shield  – Increased base skill damage from 280% to 340% weapon damage
• Skill Rune: Combust – Increased damage from 105% to 270% weapon damage
• Skill Rune: Shattering Throw – Increased damage from 50% to 333% weapon damage
• Known Issue: The tooltip for this skill rune does not reflect this change
• Fist of the Heavens  – Increased base skill’s impact damage from 250% to 340% weapon damage
• Increased base skill’s bolt damage from 210% to 340% weapon damage
• Skill Rune: Divine Well – Increased damage from 14% to 80% weapon damage
• Increased bolt zap search radius from 12 to 18 yards
• Skill Rune: Fissure – Increased area of effect damage from 80% to 400% weapon damage over 5 seconds
• Increased Arc capsule damage radius from 3 to 6 yards
• Skill Rune: Heaven’s Tempest –  Bug Fix: Fixed an issue where Heaven’s Tempest was not moving around in its intended pattern
• Heaven’s Fury Skill Rune: Fires of Heaven – Reduced damage from 950% to 735% weapon damage
• Justice  – Increased base skill damage from 175% to 240% weapon damage
• Skill Rune: Burst – Increased damage from 25% to 30% weapon damage
• Skill Rune: Hammer of Pursuit –  Hammer of Pursuit now seeks targets more quickly after cast
• Increased damage from 200% to 300% weapon damage
• Phalanx – Increased base skill damage from 295% to 380% weapon damage
• Skill Rune: Bowmen – Increased damage from 85% to 160% weapon damage
• Skill Rune: Bodyguard – Increased damage from 200% to 285% weapon damage
• Skill Rune: Shield Charge –  Increased damage from 75% to 180% weapon damage
• Skill Rune – Stampede
• Increased Stun chance from 25% to 30%
• Punish – Increased base skill damage from 200% to 270% weapon damage
• Skill Rune: Retaliate – Increased damage from 70% to 94% weapon damage
• Shield Bash – Increased base skill damage from 325% to 370% weapon damage
• Skill Rune: Crumble –  Increased on death proc damage from 550% to 660% weapon damage
• Skill Rune: Pound – Increased damage from 550% to 740% weapon damage
• Increased bonus damage from shield Block Chance from 150% to 500%
• Steed Charge – Reduced base skill cooldown from 25 to 16 seconds
• Reduced base skill duration from 2 to 1.5 seconds, no longer breaks Stun
• Skill Rune: Endurance –  Reduced duration from 3 to 2 seconds
• Skill Rune: Ramming Speed –  Increased damage from 475% to 515% weapon damage
• Skill Rune: Nightmare –  Bug Fix: Fixed an issue where the Fire pools were not lasting their full intended duration
• Skill Rune: Draw and Quarter – Increased damage from 125% to 185% weapon damage
• Sweep Attack – Increased base damage from 400% to 440% weapon damage
• Lord Commander – Now reduces the cooldown of Steed Charge by 25% and Bombardment by 35%

There’s a lot more on the Blizzard website, dealing with quests, crafting, items and monsters. I’d post it, but this is starting to eat up precious gaming time for me and I need to level my Monk up further.

Last Updated: April 10, 2014