Diablo III Patch 2.6.1 First Look

The official Diablo III developer blog has previously outlined the balance goals for the upcoming patch v2.6.1, and now we get a chance to read a bit more about the changes that await us in 2.6.1, a patch that’s aimed at making as many playstyles viable as possible. As a result, Class sets and legendary items, as well as some skills like Blessed Hammer and Arcane Orb, will all be getting buffs in 2.6.1. And since Blizzard Entertainment is known for nerfing things they deem too strong, this newfound buff-happy approach is quite welcome.

A few paragraphs from the blog post:

Class Set Revisions

Following the release of the Necromancer, the theme of this patch is (appropriately) balance. We’ve taken a top-down look across all class performance in Greater Rifts, and made several changes to bring as many gameplay styles as close in line to each other as possible. Targeting the most popular or requested builds, we started with Class sets, and you can expect buffs coming your way no matter which hero is your favorite.

While some sets, like Legacy of Raekor or Uliana’s Strategem, have simply received numerical tweaks in power, others have had minor functionality tweaks that make a big difference. For example, if you’re a big fan of spinning to win, you should revisit the Wrath of the Wastes set. In addition to getting a boost in damage, the damage reduction provided by the 4-piece set bonus now lasts an additional 3 seconds, making plenty of room to toss out a Rend without feeling too vulnerable.

The Necromancer isn’t left out either; if you enjoy the bloody gameplay of Trag’Oul’s Avatar, the double-life cost from the 6-piece set bonus has been removed. Hardcore players may now feel a bit more comfortable experimenting with this set, enabling oodles of gore-tastic gameplay.

Skill Changes

While most of the incoming changes are focused on items, there were some skills that needed tweaks to improve their overall performance. Skills are the stage upon which balance is built, so we identified a number of them that would benefit from more careful tuning and improved in-game performance .

For example, Crusaders with a hankering for hammers will find that the Blessed Hammer (Limitless) rune has been redesigned. The additional projectiles were causing performance issues in high density areas, so we’ve compensated by increasing both the rune’s base damage as well as its area of effect.

Other changes were more straightforward. We noticed, for example, that Arcane Orb (Frozen Orb) could not benefit from either the Power Hungry or Audacity passives due to its ideal explosion range. We’ve increased its range to 40 yards to make the intent of this skill’s synergies clearer.

And here you can see the latest preliminary PTR patch notes.