*** The Official Diablo III Thread ***

Soldato
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17 Dec 2006
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8,190
Patch 2.7.0 (Season 23)

Dates:
2nd April 2021 - Mid to Late July 2021
Opening Time: 4 PM UK / 5 PM CEST

Click here for timezone comparisons

You can find builds for this season here
The last major patch notes and season information is here

There isn't a specific theme for this season, however, there is a pretty sizable follower revamp instead.

Code:
Seasons
Follower System Revamp: The Follower system for Diablo III has been revamped and will be made permanently available for Seasonal and Non-Seasonal play! Players can now equip Followers with a total of 14 different item slots which include the Follower Relic Item, Helm, Shoulders, Chest, Gloves, Bracers, Belt, 2 Rings, Neck, Pants, Boots, main-hand weapon, and off-hand. We're introducing a new Follower feature into Diablo III called Emanate, which allows the player to gain the intended effect of certain Legendary Powers and Set Bonuses when equipped on the hired Follower. The current list of items with Emanate capabilities are the following:

Broken Crown
Homing Pads
Spaulders of Zakara
Goldskin
Custerian Wristguards
Nemesis Bracers
Gladiator Gauntlets
Gloves of Worship
Dovu Energy Trap
Rakoff's Glass of Life
Avarice Band
Krede's Flame
The Flavor of Time
Sage's Journey (3-piece set bonus)
Cain's Destiny (3-piece set bonus)
Follower Skills Revamp: Follower skills have been reworked to showcase new and updated skills. Check out the full update on the Follower skills below:

Scoundrel

Crippling Shot
Ranged attack that deals 140% weapon damage and slows enemies hit by 80% for 3 to 6 seconds based on the Scoundrel's Dexterity.
Powered Shot
Ranged attack that explodes on impact, dealing 120% weapon damage as Arcane to enemies within 10 yards and has a 100% chance to Stun enemies for 3 to 6 seconds based on the Scoundrel's Dexterity.
Hysteria
Whenever you or the Scoundrel land a Critical Hit, you both will go into hysterics, increasing all damage done by 3% for 3 to 6 seconds based on the Scoundrel's Dexterity.
Anatomy
Increases Critical Hit Chance by 1.8% to 4% for you and the Scoundrel based on the Scoundrel's Dexterity.
Multishot Passive
Passive: The Scoundrel's special attacks have a 50% to 70% chance to fire 3 bolts based on the Scoundrel's Dexterity.
*Skill Rework - Vanish
When you take fatal damage, the Scoundrel conceals you from enemies for 3 to 7 seconds based on the Scoundrel's Dexterity, allowing you to escape your death.
*New Skill - Night's Veil
The Scoundrel launches a cloud that covers a 20-yard area and lasts 5 to10 2 to 4 seconds based on the Scoundrel’s Dexterity. All attacks against enemies that are inside the cloud will be critical hits.
*New Skill - Piercing Shot
Ranged attack that pierces and increases damage done to enemies by 10% for 3 to 6 seconds based on the Scoundrel's Dexterity.
*Removed Skills - Dirty Fighting and Poison Bolts
Templar

Heal and Loyalty
These skills now scale based on the Templar’s Strength.
Intimidate
Enemies that hit or are hit by the Templar are slowed by 80% for 3 to 6 seconds based on the Templar's Strength.
Charge
Charges a target, dealing 280% weapon damage and stunning all enemies within 8 yards for 3 to 6 seconds based on the Templar's Strength.
Intervene
Taunt enemies within 10 yards of you for 3 to 6 seconds based on Templar's strength when you are hit.
*Skill Rework - Onslaught
Delivers a massive blow to an enemy for 800% weapon damage and causes the target and nearby enemies to take 10% increased damage for 3 to 6 seconds based on the Templar's Strength.
*Skill Rework - Guardian
When you take fatal damage, the Templar will rush to your aid, knocking back enemies within 15 yards, healing you for 15% to 25% life based on the Templar's Strength, and shielding you from all damage for 5 seconds.
Enchantress

Erosion
Conjures a pool of energy that deals 330% weapon damage as Arcane over 5 to 7 seconds based on the Enchantress's Intelligence. Affected enemies will also take 10% increased damage.
Focused Mind
A 40-yard aura that increases attack speed for you and the Enchantress by 3% to 6% based on the Enchantress's Intelligence.
*Skill Rework (Renamed from Powered Armor) - Powered Shield
Reduces damage by 6% from ranged attacks, increases Armor by 3%, and slows melee attackers by 60% for 3 to 6 seconds for you and the Enchantress based on the Enchantress's Intelligence.
*New Skill - Temporal Pulse
The Enchantress casts a guided orb that deals 150% weapon damage and slows enemies by 80% for 3 to 6 seconds based on the Enchantress's Intelligence.
*New Skill - Amplification
Increases your highest static elemental bonus by 5% to 10% based on the Enchantress's Intelligence.
*New Skill - Prophetic Harmony
Reduce your skills’ Cooldowns by 5% to 10% based on the Enchantress's Intelligence.
*New Skill - Fate's Lapse
When you take fatal damage, the Enchantress empowers you to speed up your movement through time for 3 to 7 seconds to avoid death based on the Enchantress's Intelligence.
*Removed Skills - Forceful Push, Mass Control, Disorient, and Missile Ward
Solo Leaderboards Update: Greater Rift solo leaderboards now contain additional filters to sort by. This update provides a total of 7 filters available per class.

Class Sets
No Class Set
Overall (default filter)
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Items
General Updates

Teleport - Adjusted Wizard's Teleport animation speed.
Land of the Dead - Invigoration skill rune now removes all resource costs.
Rathma's Shield passive skill now has a 60-second cooldown
Item Changes

Bones of Rathma 2-Piece Set: Your permanent minions reduce the cooldown of Army of the Dead by 0.25 0.50 second each time they deal damage. Your skeletal warriors spawn faster, and your revived minions no longer expire.
Bones of Rathma 4-Piece Set: Your minions no longer take damage. You gain 1% damage reduction for 15 seconds each time one of your minions deal damage. Maximum of 75 stacks.
Bones of Rathma 6-Piece Set: Each permanent active minion increases the damage of Army of the Dead by 500%, up to 8500% 9000%.
Defiler Cuisses: Bone Spirit's damage is increased by 400% to 500% for every second it is active and will also freeze enemies on impact. Maximum of 5 seconds.
New item* Bonds of C'Lena: Bone Spirit deals 300% to 400% increased damage and deals an additional 2% increased damage for 10 seconds each time Army of the Dead hits an enemy. Maximum of 500 stacks. Army of the Dead deals 75% to 100% increased damage or double this bonus against an active target of Command Skeletons.
Firebird's Finery 2-Piece Set: Disintegrate Ignites enemies, causing them to take 7500% 3000% weapon damage per second until they die. When you die, a meteor falls from the sky and revives you. This effect has a 60-second cooldown.
Firebird's Finery 4-Piece Set: Casting Disintegrate adds Combustion stacks that reduce the cooldown of Teleport by 1% 2% per stack. Stacks up to 100 50 times. You gain 80% damage reduction while maintaining Combustion stacks.
Firebird's Finery 6-Piece Set: You gain 4000% 2000% 5000% increased damage while Ignite is applied to a target. Hitting an Ignited enemy with a non-channeling fire spell deals Ignite damage multiplied by Combustion stacks.
Developer Note: With the bulk of patch 2.7.0's focus being on the single-player experience, we recognize that the set reworks and balance changes are some of the most impactful and important to the group play experience. We've heard the outpouring of feedback from the community and have decided to increase the Firebird's Finery 6-piece bonus.
We hope these changes will allow players to explore new strategies in high-end group play compositions for Season 23. We hope you enjoy Firebird's this season, but we will keep an eye on its power and adjust balance in the future.
Gears of Dreadlands 6-Piece Set: Your primary skills deal 15,000% increased damage.
The Ninth Cirri Satchel: Hungering Arrow is guaranteed to pierce and also deals 450% to 600% increased damage. Hungering Arrow can only pierce up to 3 4 times.
Gazing Demise: The damage of Spirit Barrage is increased by 100% to 150%. Spirit Barrage gains the Phantasm rune that lasts twice as long, and the attack rate from Manitou spectres is increased.
Blackthorne's Jousting Mail: Replaced one minor property with a random elemental damage affix.
Class Set Dungeon Update

To account for the Necromancer redesign of the Bones of Rathma set, we have updated the objective to "Revive 100 Corpses" from the current "Raise 100 Skeletal Mages".
Developer Note: In addition to the recent changes, we'll continue to analyze the performance of individual builds and rebalance them to allow for more variety in all categories of gameplay. We appreciate and value your feedback as we continue to analyze and fine-tune the performance of a variety of builds and address the high and low performers in this and future balance patches. Thank you all for your support and we look forward to seeing you this season!
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Bug Fixes
Fixed an issue with the legacy version of Etched Sigil buffing unintended effects.
Fixed an issue with the Follower's cheat death skills activating while the player had a Shield Pylon active.
Fixed an issue where the Templar would sometimes stop following the player.
Fixed Revive - Personal Army buff not persisting with Rathma's 4 piece bonus
(Console) Fixed an issue with Follower skill cooldowns for Night's Veil (Scoundrel), Erosion (Enchantress), and Onslaught (Templar).

If you're looking to get the game then you can get the Diablo 3 Starter Edition to try the game out (you will need to create a Battle.net account). Once you've made an account you can download the Battle.net Desktop App. Open that, browse to Diablo III and click "Try for Free". You can also view more information on the Starter Edition here which covers the limitations and how to upgrade. After that, and assuming you go on to buy it, it's highly recommend to run through the game once in story mode to get to grips with the game and to get the Reaper of Souls expansion which adds a lot to the game. You can view more information on Reaper of Souls on the Blizzard website. Make sure to check out below for a list of battletags of people from OcUK (although this isn't up to date as people have left/joined new clans or may have stopped playing).

If you'd like more information or you're looking to get started with the new upcoming season and what to know some specifics on the new content then check out the handy 'pocket guide' for Diablo here.

If you're playing on the console versions see here for the console thread.
Elective Mode
Elective Mode is off by default however it is essential that it is turned on. This mode allows you to put any skill in the quickslot bars regardless of whether are in the same 'group'. Unless you turn this on you will be limited to one skill per group designated to the that particular quickslot key.

Campaign
It's not essential for seasons but it's recommended to complete the campaign once to experience the whole story and to get to grips with the games mechanics such as skills, runes, followers and crafting. Adventure Mode is the 'end-game' mode for Diablo and if you're not playing in a season you need to have completed the campaign fully once and is only available with the Reaper of Souls expansion. In a season this is unlocked by default without needing a campaign playthrough but still requires the Reaper of Souls expansion.

Online Profiles and Standings
All Diablo characters have online profiles where you can browse characters gear and skill set-ups. To quickly find your character you will need your Battle.net tag and number. To get these go into the Battle.net app and in the top-right corner left click on your name and it'll give you both. After that visit:

http://eu.battle.net/d3/en/profile/Name-Number/

to view your characters. In this example mine is Teaf#1614 so I could replace "Name" with "Teaf" and "Number" with "1614" (without any quotes). Blizzard also have standings for Greater Rift progression for every class and region. You can view the European standings at this link. From here you can select the Greater Rift type (season, hardcore, etc) as well as classes and era.

Gearing Basics
There is quite a lot to discuss on how to gear properly, but in most cases this revolves around set items. For the basics though we can quickly discuss essentials when it comes to certain items and stats. You will need an understanding of the Mystic and how primary and second affixes work. You can view more on her here.

Item Affixes
Items will always have affixes although how many you have depends on the items level and rarity. At maximum you can have 4 primary affixes and 2 secondary affixes. There are some niche cases where this is different and you can have 5 primary affixes but this only counts for a limited amount of legendary items. When re-rolling stats at the Mystic you can only turn primary affxies into other primary affixes (and secondary into other secondary). Such as Vitality (primary) can be re-rolled into a Socket (primary) but cannot be rolled into Pick-Up Radius (secondary). You cannot have multiple rolls of the same affix, even with the Mystic.

Ancients: Ancient items are specific to legendary items (regular and set) and are simply more powerful variants of the same item. They have much higher bottom and top end rolls ranges for affixes, and for weapons have high base damage.

Weapons: Every character is greatly boosted by having a socket in their weapon. With exceptions only for leveling up to 70 you must have a socket in your weapon or you are greatly hindering your character. Whilst leveling this is recommended but is not essential. This only matters for weapons and the same rule isn't applied for off-hand items such as shields and quivers.

Sockets: It is nearly essential that all items that are capable of having a socket do actually have their maximum sockets available. The exceptions are off-hand items such as quivers, shields and mojos where the socket is not only not essential it is actively discouraged (except for niche cases) as there are more important stats on off-hand items to get. These guidelines also include the exception of skill stats such as "Increases <skill> damage by x%" as they are different depending on class and slot.

Damage Slots: Excluding your main and off-hand slots the primary damage slots are: rings, amulet, gloves. Except in niche cases (such as a non-crit build) they should always have: your primary stat (Int, Dex, or Str), critical hit chance and critical hit damage. Arguments can be made for also having attack speed however this is build specific and in most cases your primary stat and both crit rolls are better. One other note is for amulets which, like bracers, can roll a specific damage stat such as "Cold skills increased by x% damage" which is a very good stat when primary focusing on one damage type.

Hybrid Slots: Hybrid items are slots which don't specialise on defense or offense but include a mix. This includes: bracers, helm, shoulders and waist. Your helm and bracers slots can both roll critical hit chance, but not critical hit damage, and an array of defensive slots. It is mostly always essential to get critical hit chance on both these slots. Bracers can also roll specific damage boost stats like "Cold skills increase by x% damage" which is highly advised to get. The waist slot is generally a defensive slots but can be used either as a hybrid or damage slot. Items like Fleeting Strap and The Witching Hour are offensively focused, but items such as String of Ears are defensively focused. Shoulders are generally defensive based but can roll two very good damage stats: area damage and skill damage. This has lead to players using this slot for offensive rather than it's general defensive usage of having a primary stat, vitality and armour/all resistance.

Defensive Slots: Defensive slots are generally considered to be: chest, pants and boots. These items are normally always built purely defensively with your primary stat, vitality, armour or all resistance and, where possible, reduced melee/range damage.

Communities and Clans: It's recommended to at least join a community if you don't plan on finding a clan. Communities are like a general chat and often have specific topics such as classes, but some are quite general such as the Reddit community. They offer a nice way to find groups or chat about the game without having to have people in your party already.
 
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Soldato
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Spoke to Andybtsn about the other thread and he's going to close it as it's massive and probably needs archiving (920~ pages) and the original poster hasn't been on OcUK in 3 years and it would be great if we could have a regularly updated first post with new information, builds, guides, links, patch notes, battle.net tags etc. It's a good time to do it also as Season 4 is tomorrow and lots of people are coming back to the game.

I'll get this thread sorted with new information and I'll keep it updated. If people would like their battle.net tags added to the post just reply and I'll add them in.

Old thread: Click me!

Nice idea for a new tidy thread given the game has changed so much mate.

I guess we should add some info for the OcUK Diablo III Clan

Clan Name : Overclockers UK <OcUK>

Clan leader : Overkill

Battletags of people who can invite to clan

Sharpy#2557
Caphel#2789
DizzyDwarf#21662
Solost#2623
Kyo#2954
Seyline#2483
 
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Soldato
Joined
25 Apr 2007
Posts
5,255
Still trying to decide what class to go with on S4. I like the idea of the new mega 7 sided strike detonating a screen full of exploding palms, but the Monk class has never really excited me like some other classes do.

Or I can enjoy the chaos of a screen full of pets, dropping acid clouds and walls of death with the WD, but never feeling 100% in control of a focused output of damage.

Hmmm
 
Soldato
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Posts
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I played WD pretty much non stop since launch and this season when WD is at their strongest im going to try Monk :D

Ill no doubt have a WD going at some point but on PTR by far the most fun i had was playing the SSS monk with Ulianas Stratagem Set. It got a few nerfs but its still capable of high 60's possibly more, plus monk has viable generator, healing/support and immense speed farming capability.

Barb - looking ridiculiously strong in all areas. They have a bit of squishyness on really high GR (70+) but that just raises the skill set for those higher clears.

It also had one of the best support builds with the ancient spear build.

Wiz - still the proverbial glass cannon however feedback from the archon build was that its super fun to play and has crazy high dps. Talrasha and Delseres are still strong now thanks to the cube.

Monk - New Ulianas set is the focus for season 4 with the Lions Claw making it a 14 sided strike that detonates all the exploding palms making for massive carnage :)

Innas and Sunwoku are still viable for generator builds which can push every bit as high as the new set. Raiments dashing strike is also still strong thanks to the cube. Healing monk support is also stupidly OP atm giving 500-1mil life per second to groups with the right set up

WD - had by far the most buffs this season. The old zuni poison dart build is still very strong with the reworking of fetishes to be both melee and ranged damage.

Helltooth set has been totally reworked allowing acidcloud, garg, zombie charger and firebats builds.

Sadly the new spider set and jade still look pretty weak and will no doubt be used for more speed farming than progression

Crusader - This class was amazing to play early in PTR with the new Light set bringing the blessed hammerdin build back. A series of nerfs and crippling the falling sword damage has made crusader pretty weak for solo gr being prob the lowest class on PTR.

However they seem to be pretty strong in support with the changes to CC most classes have no more fun as zdps but crus can still play a decent tanky, blind/pull support

Demon Hunter - on paper they had very few changes on PTR, however as a class which has topped the DPS charts for the last few seasons there wasnt a lot broke to fix. All the existing Season 3 builds will be viable from Nats to Marauders to Unholy. The cube has simply added more build variety, higher DPS, better resource management and more survivability.

Prob the best class to goto if you want a similar experience to Season 3 but with more of the same :)
 
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Soldato
Joined
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5,255
Thanks for the run down. They all look pretty good to be honest. I think the game is in a really good place at the moment even though I'm probably still a little burned out on it.
 
Soldato
OP
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Yeah if you want added just reply with your tag. Monk and WD was the same dilemma I had this season :p Chose WD in the end, with the hopes of going group stuff with Charger or/and Arachyr but the latter seems too underpowered compared to other specs and sharpys said that Fire Wall/Acid Cloud is kinda laggy so might just end up going Carnevil. Probably still make a Monk at some point though.
 
Associate
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devon
Looking forward to S4, rolling monk again. Shame S4 doesn't kick off till 3:00 pm, as I took the day off work!!.

To those that played the PTR, how long did it take to hit Lvl Cap?
 
Soldato
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Norn Iron
Looking forward to S4, rolling monk again. Shame S4 doesn't kick off till 3:00 pm, as I took the day off work!!.

To those that played the PTR, how long did it take to hit Lvl Cap?

Theres a few different methods going around with varying times to hit cap.

Great thread here https://www.reddit.com/r/Diablo/comments/3g81kb/updated_23_season_4_fastest_leveling_guide_full/

Group will always be faster than solo due to the xp bonus.

Basic Tips

- Always go adventure mode, no really avoid campaign unless you want to take your time

- Once started immediately go and steal the appropriate weapon from your follower of choice, enchantress for int users, Scoundrel for DH, Templar for Monk/Barb/Crus. The followers weapons will be much better than the starting gear

- theres a few diferent methods for speed levelling, some hit all bounties that way you gain a small amount of cube mats while levelling so you start at 70 able to immediately cube a few items.

Some go full rifts from level 1, its the best way to ensure you have the best chances of legendaries with decent xp if you are quick at clearing on Hard. You mis sout on the cube mats but you will prob be able to jump straight into T1 at 70 due to the better gear you will have.

Some go for a mixture of cursed bounties and rifts for best of both worlds.

Another idea is run halls of agony till your 18, go kill the skeleton king and hope you get leorics crown, stick a red gem in it and then spam rifts.

The PTR also showed its worth getting your blacksmith levelled up as fast as possible, once the blacksmith is at level 10 you can craft level 60 weapons which if your lucky will roll with red level requirement, this can be a max of 30 levels which means by level 30 you can have a level 60 weapon which will naturally mean you can clear faster

:)
 
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Kyo

Kyo

Soldato
Joined
11 Oct 2003
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Nice one Fibby. It good of you to step up and it's about time for a rehaul.

Good amount of info and links too great job mate!! Was going to mention youtube Anthony Evans WD channel and Mikhail meathead channel



Like you will give it a whirl when the new season starts!!
 
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Soldato
OP
Joined
17 Dec 2006
Posts
8,190
Nice one Fibby. It good of you to step up and it's about time for a rehaul.

Good amount of info and links too great job mate!! Was going to mention youtube Anthony Evans WD channel and Mikhail meathead channel

Doh, no idea how I forgot about Mikhail, I watch his videos all the time. Anthony Evans is up there though (he's BigDaddyDen) :)

Cheers mate
 
Associate
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How are wizards going to be during Season 4?

I did a lot of testing on the Ptr with the new archon set, new s4 belt, new chandodo's wep +source & new bane of stricken gem.

It's a very tanky solo build, much more so than the previous s3 leaderboard winning builds utilising an ancient AW + Tals.

It requires you to use 2 play styles, one out of archon and then another whilst in archon.

The basic aim is to stack manage and once you have maxed your stacks out of archon switch back and blow stuff up until it drops.

If you drop stacks due to death at very high gr's it's tough to get back in the game.

It takes some getting used to but it's very rewarding. It's a one trick only though, hence I'm going barb this season and I play in groups a lot.

I had mediocre gear on Ptr and only levelled my gems to 44 but still managed a 57 solo without even trying. I could have probably pushed much further but I switched to testing barb specs.

Hope that helps, Matt
 
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