Diablo 3’s Patch 2.6.8 continues the trend from 2.6.7 of adding new sets to the line-up with accompanying legendary item tweaks. This round sees love coming to the Wizard, Witch Doctor, and Barbarian, with Barbarian’s Horde of the Ninety Savages, Witch Doctor’s Mundunugu’s Regalia, and Wizard’s Typhon’s Veil. Remember, there are no plans to add new set dungeons for these, and we won’t see them in the seasonal rotation as of yet. Let’s dive in!
The set bonuses from the Barbarian’s Horde of the Ninety Savages gear focus around the Frenzy ability, although the two-piece bonus provides an overall boost to the effectiveness of all Shouts, with feared, frozen, or stunned enemies taking double damage. The four- and six-piece bonuses increase offensive and defensive capabilities with Frenzy. Each stack of Frenzy (four-piece) reduces damage taken, lasts twice as long, and (six-piece) deals 1000% increased damage per stack (up to 5000% if you don’t have Bastion’s Revered). Abilities that benefit from the two-piece bonus are Battle Rage, Threatening Shout, and War Cry.
Two existing Legendary items better pair with the new set from changes in this patch. The Undisputed Champion mighty belt now grants Frenzy every rune, and Frenzy deals 300-400% increased damage. The Bastion’s Revered two-handed mighty weapon tweak is a bit more complicated. First, Frenzy now stacks up to 10 times, which means 10,000% additional damage done by Frenzy with the six-piece bonus from Horde of the Ninety Savages. Frenzy will also hit an additional time per stack, and each additional hit will chain to any enemies within 15 yards, with damage split between all affected enemies. As a primary skill, many other Legendary items buff Frenzy: the Depth Diggers pants (cubed), the Oathkeeper one-handed mighty weapon, and the Simplicity’s Strength Legendary gem just keep stacking on more of that glorious damage with Frenzy. Let’s see how quickly Barbarians burn through trash mobs now!
The new Witch Doctor set, Mundunugu’s Regalia, actually boosts three abilities (depending on the piece bonus). The two-piece bonus improves the Big Bad Voodoo buffing Fetish, forcing it to follow the caster now (instead of remaining stationary) and lasting for twice as long. The four-piece bonus focuses on damage reduction (like the other sets), but it adds a 60% damage reduction buff when the caster enters the Spirit Realm (a.k.a — escapes with Spirit Walk). This buff also triggers from the Spirit Vessel passive skill, providing a handy boost to your “escape death” proc. Finally, the six-piece bonus increases the damage of Spirit Barrage by 20,000%, plus an additional percentage equal to five times the caster’s Mana Regeneration per second.
Spirit Barrage will also gain a few additional boosts from Legendary gear. The Barber (now a ceremonial knife) changes the damage output from direct to accrued. When casting stops, the Spirit Barrage explodes for 400-500% of the accumulated damage to all enemies within 15 yards (notice a theme here?). Meanwhile, the Gazing Demise mojo (off-hand) adds the Phantasm rune to your Spirit Barrage, increases the length of your active Phantasms, increases the damage of Spirit Barrage by 100-150%, and increases the attack rate from Manitou rune spectres (phew!). Finally, casters with Ring of Emptiness now deal 250-300% increased damage to enemies affected by either Haunt or Locust Swarm. Imagine the amount of spectre damage alone between the Phantasm and Manitou skill runes on haunted targets.
The Typhon’s Veil is another single spell-focused set, this time centered around the Wizard’s Hydra spell. The two-piece bonus doubles the duration for the caster’s Hydras. It also increases the number of heads on the multi-headed Hydras (summoned by the base spell) by two, which mixes well with the four-piece bonus reducing damage taken by 8% for each Hydra head alive (as long as there is at least one). That said, each time the Wizard takes damage, a hydra head dies (not more than once every 2 seconds). The six-piece bonus boosts the damage, with Hydras dealing 1300% increased damage for each Hydra head alive. The devs have noted that the continued goal was to focus the Hydra power increases more on the set and less on Legendaries to supplement the set.
That said, the impacted Legendary items are still relevant to this set. The Serpent’s Sparker wand allows for an extra Hydra active at a time (the spell’s base count is one), and the Hydras deal 250-300% increased damage. The Magistrate (Wizard’s Hat) adds Frost Nova as an occasional cast from the Hydras, with a damage increase of 250-300%. Builds so far tend to have both these items cubed, with the Enforcer Legendary gem equipped to boost Hydra damage further.
As we learned in the Developer Insights blog on balancing, the Diablo team does monitor current performance in both Seasonal and non-Seasonal play for (among other things) problematic gameplay styles. Fixes for these “creative” game mechanics begin in Patch 2.6.8 with two significant changes. The first change impacts Crusaders using Heaven’s Fury: the caster cannot cancel the animation of the Fires of Heaven skill rune early (usually done via stutter-stepping). Rest in peace, Aegis of Valor Holy Shotgun, we hardly knew you.
The other change hits Wizards hardest. The Mantle of Channeling shoulders, Etched Sigil source, and Deathwish sword now require 1 second of channeling before applying the individual item’s bonus. We’ll see how the impact to the Star Pact (Bazooka) Wizard build plays out over time, but we may be saying goodbye to this build as well based on the PTR feedback.
Overall, this is a lot to take in for a new patch with three new sets and two mechanics changes, so take a look at Blizzard’s news post or review the patch notes below. The next patch will almost certainly bring us the remaining two sets — Necromancer and Demon Hunter. Crossing my fingers now!
General
- Infernal Machines and Organs are now subject to vacuum pick-up
- Crafting plans from Bounty Caches are now guaranteed to drop unless all plans have been learned
Seasons
- A new Season Theme has been added for Season 20, the Season of the Forbidden Archives:
- For the duration of Season 20, all slots in Kanai’s Cube will be able to select Legendary powers from Weapon, Armor, or Jewelry
- This means you could select three Armor powers, three Weapon powers, three Jewelery powers, or any other combination thereof across all categories
- Items are not self-additive or multiplicative (meaning, you cannot stack multiples of the same item’s power)
- Once the Season has ended and characters roll over to Non-Season, players will have all currently active powers in their Kanai’s Cube reset
- Developer’s Note: As we outlined in our Developer Insight blog, we want to continue to get creative (and maybe a little crazy) with the Season Themes and powers we add to the game. We heard from some players that they preferred themes that made your character directly feel more powerful rather than needing to focus on the environment around you. If that describes you, then the Season of Forbidden Archives should be right up your alley, and we’re really interested to see how this changes the game for Season 20.
- For the duration of Season 20, all slots in Kanai’s Cube will be able to select Legendary powers from Weapon, Armor, or Jewelry
- Two new Seasonal rewards are available for players who fully complete the Season 20 Journey, including a new portrait frame and pet
Classes
- Crusader
- Developer’s Note: We’re not convinced that this change has fully reigned in Crusader performance to be more in line with other classes. We’ll be continuing to keep an eye on overall Crusader performance (as well as performance among the other classes) in 2.6.8 and beyond.
- Heaven’s Fury
- The animation for the Fires of Heaven rune can no longer be cancelled early.
Items
- Developer’s Note: With Patch 2.6.8, we’re adding three(!) new class sets with similar goals to those we included in the previous patch. Each set was designed primarily with boosting long-requested skills and play styles we lifted directly from community feedback. Frenzy, Spirit Barrage, and Hydra were requests that offered a lot of opportunity for gameplay exploration, and we’re looking forward to seeing what players do with these new tools at their disposal. Additional changes to associated supplemental Legendaries have been included to round out these builds.
- Mantle of Channeling
- The bonus granted by this item now occurs 1 second after channeling has begun
- Barbarian
- New Class Set: Horde of the Ninety Savages
- 2-Piece Bonus: Double the effectiveness of all Shouts. Feared, Frozen, or Stunned Enemies take double damage.
- Developer’s Note: The callout that Stun may be the best fit for this set bonus was definitely heard, but we didn’t want to take away other potential builds enabled by experimenting with Fear or Frozen. We hope this opens up a variety of options for Barbarians to explore!
- 4-Piece Bonus: Each stack of Frenzy reduces damage taken by 6%. Frenzy lasts twice as long.
- 6-Piece Bonus: Frenzy deals 1000% increased damage per stack.
- 2-Piece Bonus: Double the effectiveness of all Shouts. Feared, Frozen, or Stunned Enemies take double damage.
- Undisputed Champion
- Frenzy gains the effect of every rune and deals 300-400% increased damage.
- Bastion’s Revered
- Frenzy now stacks up to 10 times and hits an additional time per stack. Each additional hit will chain to any enemies within 15 yards and the damage is split between all affected enemies.
- New Class Set: Horde of the Ninety Savages
- Witch Doctor
- New Class Set: Mundunugu’s Regalia
- 2-Piece Bonus: Big Bad Voodoo now follows you and lasts twice as long.
- 4-Piece Bonus: Gain 60% damage reduction for 30 seconds when you enter the Spirit Realm.
- 6-Piece Bonus: Spirit Barrage deals 20000% increased damage plus an additional % equal to 5 times your Mana Regeneration/Second.
- Developer’s Note: We found this set was overperforming at the highest end, but we also wanted to maintain its capabilities at early gearing stages. The addition of a base multiplier and reducing the effectiveness of the Mana Regeneration bonus should accomplish this goal.
- The Barber
- Instead of dealing direct damage, your Spirit Barrage now accumulates on the target. When you stop casting, it explodes dealing
225-250%400-500% of the accumulated damage to all enemies within 15 yards. - Is now classified as a Ceremonial Knife, with a base 1.4 attack speed
- Instead of dealing direct damage, your Spirit Barrage now accumulates on the target. When you stop casting, it explodes dealing
- Gazing Demise
- Spirit Barrage gains the Phantasm rune. Each active Phantasm lasts twice as long, increases the damage of Spirit Barrage by
40-50%100-150%, and also increases the attack rate from Manitou spectres.
- Spirit Barrage gains the Phantasm rune. Each active Phantasm lasts twice as long, increases the damage of Spirit Barrage by
- Ring of Emptiness
- You deal 250-300% increased damage to enemies affected by
botheither your Hauntandor Locust Swarm.
- You deal 250-300% increased damage to enemies affected by
- New Class Set: Mundunugu’s Regalia
- Wizard
- New Class Set: The Typhon’s Veil
- 2-Piece Bonus: Double the duration of Hydras and increase the number of heads on multi-headed Hydras by two.
- 4-Piece Bonus: Damage taken is reduced by 8% for each Hydra head alive as long as there is one available. Each time you take damage, a Hydra heads dies. Heads cannot die more than once every 2 seconds
- 6-Piece Bonus: Hydras deal
1200%1300% increased damage for each Hydra head alive.- Developer’s Note: We’ve continued to tilt more of the power for Hydra in favor of the 6-piece set bonus and away from the supplemental Legendary items.
- Serpent’s Sparker
- You may have one extra Hydra active at a time and they deal
450-600%250-300% increased damage.
- You may have one extra Hydra active at a time and they deal
- The Magistrate
Frost HydraYour Hydras now periodically cast Frost Nova and deal450-600%250-300% increased damage.
- Etched Sigil
- The bonus granted by this item now occurs 1 second after channeling has begun.
- Deathwish
- The bonus granted by this item now occurs 1 second after channeling has begun.
- New Class Set: The Typhon’s Veil
Bugs
- Several issues with adding/removing players to group and starting new games as a group have been resolved
- Captain Crimson’s Trimmings
- Fixed an issue where the set bonus did not increase damage reduction when using Devour – Voracious
- Barbarian
- Fixed a bug where Threatening Shout (Grim Harvest) would not activate when enhanced by the Horde of the Ninety Savages set bonus
- Crusader
- Corrected the spelling of “Imperius” on the flavor text for several pieces of the Aegis of Valor set
- Fixed an issue where the bolts cast by Fist of the Heavens – Divine Well failed to zap enemies
- Demon Hunter
- Fixed an issue where In-geom was not properly dropping for Demon Hunters
- Wizard
- Fixed a bug where Arcane Torrent would get an extra damage multiplier from Etched Sigil and Deathwish
- Fixed a bug where Hydra (Frost Hydra) was getting a damage bonus instead of Attack Speed bonus from its owner’s Attack Speed; this rune now benefits from Attack Speed in the same manner as other Hydra runes
- PTR Specific
- Note: The following issues were only live on the PTR, but we’re including the fixes here for visibility and to indicate intended functionality on live.
- Fixed a bug with Bastion’s Revered where it would not properly benefit from Convention of Elements
- Fixed a bug where Big Bad Voodoo would not properly follow its owner through zones when utilizing the new 2-Piece set bonus
- Fixed a bug where Hydras would have a short delay after being summoned
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