Diablo III to Receive Major v2.0 Patch, Loot Runs Returning

As someone who hasn’t touched Diablo III since finishing it on Inferno and shelving it in favor of more persistent entertainment, it’s great to hear that the action RPG will be receiving an ambitious v2.0 patch that will “cut the legs out from the auction house” and finally make loot runs by fighting actual monsters in the game a viable option once again. This is all coming prior to the Reaper of Souls expansion pack, too:

Lead content designer Kevin Martens ran us through the free features of patch 2.0. (You’re going to get all the loot, you’re going to get all the new item types, you’re going to get all the new legendary affixes, you’re going to get our new gem type which is the diamond and you’re going to get all the changes to the rules, the smart drop system, the targeted drop system, probably you’ll get loot runs we haven’t figured that one out yet probably you’ll get paragon, etc, etc.)

Martens explains the division as being between systemic changes to the game’s rules and new content for the player to discover. (All the content is Reaper of Souls, like the act five stuff and the new higher level items, from sixty to seventy so that level cap increase, which includes the new abilities, the new runes and the new passives for existing classes.)

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When asked about the loot system changes, lead content designer Kevin Martens told us that, while trading is a perfectly legitimate way to get an item, playing the game should always be the most effective. (It is fun to go buy something instantly, the instant gratification feel, that sugar high,) he said, (however it’s not the core fantasy, it’s not the most fun and by the endgame, for a variety of reasons, they tend to check the auction house first and play the game second.)

(That’s not what we intend, and we do want to address that, so the loot system and the enchanting and crafting systems are both intended to cut the legs out from the auction house; to make it unnecessary to go on it to some degree, where the most fun way to play the game becomes the best way to play the game.)

‘˜Loot 2.0’² will add (smart drop) items, which are tuned to your character. More legendaries are also planned, with extra effects, such as a staff that can spawn hydras from dead bodies. A new artisan, the Mystic, will be introduced, letting players transmute items transferring the stats of one over to another. In addition, the new Loot Run mode will randomly generate a new 15-20 minute dungeon, letting you go treasure hunting without repeating the same locations.

I suppose I should reinstall the game again before all this craziness takes place.  Thanks, Blue’s News.