Diablo 3 passe en 2.0

Blizzard est en train de déployer le patch 2.0.1 pour Diablo 3. Bien plus qu'une simple histoire de compatibilité avec le futur addon Reaper of Souls (qui sort le 25 mars), ce patch modifie radicalement le jeu pour proposer une toute nouvelle expérience.

La liste des changements étant ridiculement longue (et en plus incomplète en ce qui concerne les classes de personnages), on va essayer de vous présenter les principales modifications. Tout d'abord cette version 2.0 abandonne l'ancien système de difficulté. Nightmare, Hell et Inferno laissent la place à Normal, Hard, Expert, Master et Torment. Les trois premiers sont accessibles dès le départ tandis que Master ne se débloque qu'à l'acte IV et qu'il faut être niveau 60 pour Torment. Torment compte six sous-niveaux offrant chacun des monstres encore plus costauds et des récompenses encore plus grandes. A tout moment on peut baisser la difficulté. Il faut quitter la partie et la relancer pour l'augmenter. Pour terminer sur la difficulté, Blizzard a ajouté une couche d'autoleveling : le niveau des monstres augmentera avec le votre.

Comme vous le savez, l’hôtel des ventes va fermer ses portes le 18 mars. Il faut donc permettre aux joueurs de pouvoir trouver du loot intéressant. C'est l'objet du nouveau système de loot qui sera désormais "intelligent" : les objets trouvés auront plus de chance de correspondre au personnage joué. Enfin les objets spécifiques à chaque classe ne nécessiteront plus d'avoir des points dans des attributs sans grand rapport avec sa classe. Le crafting suivra la même logique "intelligente" que le loot. Les objets légendaires et de set ne pourront être échangés qu'avec les membres de son groupe et moins de deux heures après les avoir trouvés, probablement pour limiter les ventes underground d'objets.

Le système Paragon permettant aux joueurs de très haut niveau de continuer d'améliorer leur perso va aussi être refondu. Le niveau de Paragon sera commun à tous les personnages d'un compte et permettra de gagner des points dans quatre catégories : Core, Offensive, Defensiv et Utility. Il est question d'attendre le niveau 800 de Paragon pour obtenir le maximum de points possible dans toutes les catégories.

Cette version 2.0 ajoutera la possibilité de créer des clans et des communautés. La différence entre les deux est assez mince : un clan ne peut être rejoint que par invitation et ne peut pas compter plus de 120 membres. Dans les deux cas, les membres de clans/communautés ont accès à des canaux d'information dédiés histoire de raconter sa petite vie et de se faire une bouffe.

Voilà qui devrait en faire replonger plus d'un pour quelques dizaines d'heures. Comme d'habitude avec le Blizzard, le suivi du jeu est impressionnant. Cependant on regrette toujours trois choses :
-l'absence de mode hors ligne
-l'absence de support du pad/coop local comme sur console
-l'absence de support officiel des mods. La politique de Blizzard est étrange à ce niveau. Alors que pour ses STRs, Blizzard est de plus en plus ouvert au point de les intégrer dans la version gratuite de Starcraft 2 : Les Ailes de la Liberté, le studio californien ne lâche rien pour ses hack'n slash.

GENERAL

Pools of Reflection have been added to the game
Pools of Reflection provide a 25% bonus to experience
This bonus persists until you reach a set amount of bonus experience (equal to approximately 10% of the current amount of Paragon experience needed to reach the next Paragon level) or your character dies
Gathering additional Pools of Reflection bonuses increases the amount of total experience bonus a character can receive until character death, stacking up to 10 times
This experience bonus persists on logout
Nephalem Glory has been added to the game
Occasionally during battle, monsters will drop Power Globes when damaged or killed
Power Globes grant the Nephalem Glory buff, which causes players to deal additional damage in the form of golden lightning bolts and increases their movement speed for a short time
This buff can stack up to three times
New hero stats have been added to the game
These include Toughness, Healing, Splash Damage, Cooldown Reduction, and Resource Cost Reduction
Life Steal has been redesigned and is now less effective at higher character levels
At level 60, Life Steal is reduced to 10% effectiveness
Players now have the ability to resurrect in multiple places when they die in Normal (non-Hardcore) games
You may choose to either resurrect at your body, in town, or at the last checkpoint you encountered
Players may not resurrect at their body during a Boss encounter
Players may only resurrect at their body a maximum of three times in a row
Player hit boxes have been adjusted to more closely represent character models
Both male and female models of the same class share the same size hit box
Followers now automatically level with characters
Quests now occasionally grant item rewards when completed during the leveling process
Gold can no longer be traded
Graphics engine has been updated to support reflections
Reflections can be turned on in the Options > Video menu
Note: This setting is not recommended for players running minimum system specifications

BOSSES

Many bosses have had their mechanics revisted and retuned
The following bosses have received the largest changes to their encounters:
Maghda
Siegebreaker
Azmodan
Iskatu
In addition, the enrage timers for the following Bosses will only be enabled in Torment I and above:
The Butcher
Zoltun Kulle
Belial
Ghom
Siegebreaker
Rakanoth

CLASSES
All classes have undergone significant revision. Additional details and patch notes will be available in the near future. In the meantime, we encourage you to log in and explore the new changes for yourself!

CRAFTING AND ARTISANS

Crafting has received several quality of life changes
Crafting materials have been condensed into two item level tiers: 1-60 and 60-70
This change is to reduce the amount of stash space consumed by crafting materials and simply older crafting recipes
All crafting materials currently in character inventories and stash have been converted accordingly
All crafted items will now roll with stats appropriate to the character crafting them, using the Loot 2.0 Smart Drop system
Please note that items designed to roll specific stats, such as the Archon Armor patterns, are exempt from this system
Items purchased from vendors are now flagged as such, and cannot be salvaged

DIFFICULTY

The difficulty system has been completely revised
Nightmare, Hell, and Inferno modes have been removed
Difficulty is now dynamic and monsters will level up with your characters
There are now five difficulty settings to choose from: Normal, Hard, Expert, Master, and Torment (1-6)
Normal, Hard, and Expert are immediately available
Master unlocks upon completing Act IV
Torment unlocks upon reaching level 60
Torment level also includes a difficulty slider, offering an additional six adjustments with increasing rewards and more powerful monsters
Each level offers new bonuses and rewards, visible in the difficulty selection menu
You can now lower your difficulty setting in-game
However, increasing your difficulty still requires exiting your current game
This option is disabled in Hardcore mode
To account for these changes, monster density has been adjusted across all Acts

EVENTS

Cursed Objects
Chests and Shrines around Sanctuary now have a chance to be cursed, starting an event once they are inspected
Like other events, completing a Cursed Chest or Shrine provides a small gold and experience reward, as well as either a Radiant Chest or a random Shrine buff
These events offer a variety of challenges, including endless monster waves, timed events, and potentially spawning bosses out in the open world
Infernal Machines
Torment level difficulty is now required to use Infernal Machines

ITEMIZATION (LOOT 2.0)

Itemization has undergone a major overhaul:
Legendary and Set items are now Bind on Account
Players in multiplayer games may trade Legendaries and Set Items they find with others who were present for the drop for up to 2 hours after the item is acquired
The Smart Drop system has been implemented
All items that drop have a chance to roll as "Smart Loot"
Smart Loot items roll intelligently based on the character being played (example: A Wizard is more likely to find items with Intelligence or bonuses to Wizard skills than a Barbarian)
Class specific items will no longer roll stats inappropriate to their class (example: Intelligence will no longer appear on Mighty Weapons or Belts)
New item affixes have been added to the game
This include Splash Damage, Cooldown Reduction, Resource Cost Reduction, +% damage to Physical damage skills, and specific Class Skill Bonuses
Item properties have been separated into two categories: Primary and Secondary
Primary Stats include: Strength, Dexterity, Intelligence, Vitality, Critical Hit Damage, Critical Hit Chance, Attack Speed, Life per Second, Armor, +% Life, Bonus Damage to Elites, Bleed Damage, All Resistance, Sockets, and all new affixes listed above
Secondary Stats include: Gold Find, Thorns, Bonus Experience per Monster Kill, Chance for (Fear, Stun, Blind, Freeze, Chill, Slow, Immobilize and Knockback), Ignore Durability Loss, Bonus Healing to Health Globes and Potions, Bonus Pickup Radius, Single Resist, Life After Kill, and Level Requirement Reduction
This is to prevent stats that directly and indirectly increase character power from competing with one another
Stat ranges on items have been narrowed significantly (example: instead of an item having a stat range of 1-200 Strength, its range might now be something like 140-200)
Legendary powers now roll in a range, instead of a static amount
Example: The Legendary Spirit Stone “The Laws of Seph” has the legendary affix “Using Blinding Flash restores [75-100] spirit”
Players can now view the stat ranges of items by pressing and holding CTRL while an item's tooltip is open
All Legendary items have been reworked with one or all of the above points in mind
Potions have been condensed to a single type; they now provide 60% of your total health when consumed
All Potions currently in character inventories or stashes will be converted to the new Potion type

MONSTERS

Monster affixes have been revisited and retuned
Arcane Enchanted
Spawn effect now shows which direction it will start rotating
Desecrator
Damage now begins low, but quickly ramps up to its maximum damage
Frozen
Increased the number of Frozen crystals spawned by monsters with this affix
Frozen no longer increases how many crystals are spawned based on the number of players in the game
Frozen crystals now deal area of effect damage over time to players as they build up to their explosion
Jailer
Now does a small amount of damage when applied to the player
Vortex
Now does a small amount of damage when applied to the player
Mortar
Now has an outer impact area that does less damage than the center of impact
Now detonates if they vertically hit a wall
Plagued
Monsters with this affix now sometimes drop a pool under players as well as under themselves
Reflects Damage
No longer reflects a portion of incoming damage
Now reflects a fixed amount of damage per attack
Elite and Champion monsters now have five new possible affixes
Frozen Pulse: A shard of ice follows targets around before freezing in place and pulsing cold damage in a small area
Orbiter: A nexus of electrical energy appears, surrounded by additional balls of lightning that orbit in a large area
Poison Enchanted: Summons globules of poison matter that spread in a cross pattern, dealing damage to those caught in their wake
Thunderstorm: A powerful bolt of lightning strikes the ground, emanating a small wave of electrical energy
Wormhole: A pair of portals appears, dealing damage as it tears unfortunate targets from their location and transports them elsewhere
Monster density has been revisited
Density has been retuned around the new difficulty system
Elite and Champion packs can now spawn in a larger variation of pack sizes
Wasp projectiles can now be dodged and blocked

PARAGON (PARAGON 2.0)

The Paragon leveling system has been completely revamped
There is no longer a cap on the number of Paragon levels a player can gain
Paragon levels are now account-wide and shared across all characters
Note that Paragon levels are tracked independently between Hardcore and Normal modes
Players no longer gain static bonuses upon achieving Paragon Levels and bonuses currently earned by players have been removed
Players now earn Paragon points each level to spend in one of four separate categories: Core, Offense, Defense, and Utility
Players with existing Paragon levels have been granted the appropriate number of points to distribute amongst these categories
With these changes in mind, the Paragon leveling curve has been updated
Note that all Paragon experience earned across all characters prior to this patch has been totaled and recalculated into your new account-wide Paragon level
Paragon points can be allocated by clicking the Paragon button in the Character Paper Doll and Inventory screen (Default Hotkey C)

SOCIAL FEATURES

Clans and Communities have been added to the game
Clans
Anyone may create a Clan, and doing so gives access to the Clan window (default hotkey N)
Joining or creating a clan displays your clan tag next to your name
Clan members can view the Members Roster, a private chat channel, and a News & Info tab for Clan affairs and information in the Clan window
Clans support up to 120 members and require an invitation to join
Players may only be a member of one Clan at a time
Communities
Anyone may create a Community, and can view their Community details in the Social tab (default hotkey SHIFT + O)
Community members have access to their Members Roster, a dedicated chat channel, and a News & Info tab for sharing stories and Community information
Players may join any number of Communities they wish
Communities do not have a membership limit; however, if the number of members exceeds 100, only Officers and above will be displayed in the Members Roster
Communities can be designated as Private or Public; Private Communities require invitation to join
Communities are organized by categories, including but not limited to Classes, Regional, and Game Type

USER INTERFACE

Several quality of life changes have been applied to the User Interface
The Difficulty and Game Creation menus have been completely redone
The in-game Menu has been revised
The waypoint list has been replaced with a waypoint map
Skill tooltips now show damage type if Advanced Tooltips are enabled
Several new social options have been added to support Clans and Communities
These can be accessed in the Options > Gameplay menu
New chat colors associated with Clans and Communities have been added
There is now an option to enable icons for dropped items instead of text
This can be enabled in the Options > Gameplay menu
There is now an option to automatically skip all cut scenes
This can be enabled in the Options > Gameplay menu
Item labels for Gold piles are no longer displayed
This is to reduce visual clutter; values are still displayed when gold is picked up