Diablo III update out now (version 2.6.9), Season 21 starts July 3

This week, Diablo III received its latest update. Version 2.6.9 features a new season buff, new class sets, and a handful of item and skill adjustments.

Speaking of a new season, Season 21 kicks off on July 3. We have more information about that below, along with full patch notes for version 2.6.9.

New Season Theme

Wait, Nephalem. Do you sense that? Though the air remains tainted with a demonic brimstone stench, the world around you crackles with chaotic elemental energy. You have been deemed worthy, and the primal forces of Sanctuary manifest to aid you in the fight against the swelling darkness. 

With you as the champion of the elements, the burning hells will face the Trials of Tempests!

• During Season 21, your character will occasionally (every 90 seconds) channel an elemental power which unleashes into the environment for a limited time:
  • Rain meteors from the skies around you.
  • Breathe lightning.
  • Summon a wall of flame.
  • Release twisters of pure energy.
  • Crush your foes under the weight of rolling snowballs.

Seasonal Cosmetic Rewards

Beginning with Season 17, we began re-introducing previous Seasonal rewards to make them available to players who may have missed them the first time around. For Season 21, this means awards originally available from Season 9 are returning to the Season Journey.

However, we know it’s nice to have something new to aim for if you’ve participated in previous Seasons. We’re continuing to provide new End of Journey rewards as introduced in Season 17, with two new cosmetic rewards for those who complete the entirety of the Season journey. Prove your worth in the Trial of Tempests to earn the Stupendous Contraption pet and the Industrial Portrait Frame.

In addition to the Chest and Gloves slots of the exclusive Conqueror Set, you’ll be able to earn the Pandemonium portraits and the cute and craggly Rocky pet first introduced in Season 9.

Season Journey Rewards

If you’ve been diligently slaying demons for the past few Seasons and reached Conqueror in the Season Journey each time, you’ve surely accrued a few extra stash tabs. You’ll earn one additional tab each Season by finishing the Conqueror tier, up to a maximum of five:

• Guardian of Sanctuary: Finish a level 70 Nephalem Rift on Torment XIII difficulty within 5 minutes.
• Gem of My Life: Level three Legendary Gems to level 55.
• All I Do is Win: Complete 2 Conquests this Season.
• Lose Yourself: Kill the Skeleton King at level 70 in under 30 seconds on Torment XIII difficulty.
• Money Ain’t a Thang: Slay Greed on Torment XIII difficulty. Treasure Goblins outside of Nephalem Rifts will sometimes open portals to Greed’s domain, The Vault.
• Take U There: Reach Greater Rift Level 60 Solo. Greater Rift keystones can be obtained from any Nephalem Rift guardian.
• Power Amplification: Use Kanai’s Cube to augment an Ancient Legendary item with a level 50+ gem.
• Cubic Reconfiguration: Use Kanai’s Cube to reforge a Legendary item.

 

Seasonal Conquests

Want to prepare your Conquest plan for Season 21? Here are the challenges you’ll face!

For Curses!/Stars Align, pick any Cursed Chest event that requires killing monsters and defeat over 350 or more at level 70 on Torment X or higher. Also returning for Season 21 is Sprinter/Speed Racer, where you’re challenged to complete the entire Diablo III campaign from Act I to Act V at level 70 in under 1 hour! Next is Avarice/Avaritia, where all that glitters is gold—that is, if you can complete a 50 million gold streak outside of The Vault or its Inner Sanctum. We’re also bringing Thrill/Superhuman, which requires completion of a Greater Rift level 45—solo and without any Set items equipped. And lastly we’ll be bringing back Speed Demon/Need for Speed, meaning you’ll need to beat a Torment X Nephalem Rift at level 70 in 2 minutes. Best of luck!

Haedrig’s Gift

Finally, the Class Sets rewarded for completing certain chapters in the Season Journey courtesy of Haedrig’s Gift have rotated once more. We’ve listed the available Sets below. For those new to Seasons, here’s how it works:

Completing Chapters 2, 3, and 4 of the Season Journey will reward you with three of Haedrig’s Gifts. Each Gift contains a few pieces from one of your Class Sets. Players can only unlock one Class Set in this manner per Season across Hardcore and Non-Hardcore, so choose wisely!

The set you receive depends on the class of the character you’re playing when you open each Haedrig’s Gift. To collect a full Class Set, you’ll need to open all three on the same character.

Here are the sets granted by Haedrig’s Gift in Season 21:

• Barbarian – Might of the Earth
• Crusader – Thorns of the Invoker
• Demon Hunter – The Shadow’s Mantle
• Monk – Monkey King’s Garb
• Witch Doctor – Raiment of the Jade Harvester
• Wizard – Firebird’s Finery
• Necromancer – Grace of Inarius

 

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Patch Notes

Below you will find the final patch notes for the most recent update for Diablo III, Patch 2.6.9. Changes specifically from the original PTR have been highlighted in RED.

Items

Demon Hunter

• New Demon Hunter Set: Gears of Dreadlands 
  • 2-Piece Bonus
    • Gain 4 seconds of Momentum when attacking with a Primary skill, at a maximum of 20 seconds. Your Primary skills deal 10% increased damage per second of Momentum.​ 
  • 4-Piece Bonus
    • Casting Strafe against enemies will automatically shoot your last used primary skill, and also give 60% damage reduction while strafing and for 5 seconds after. While Strafing, you gain 8% increased movement speed for each second of Momentum.
  • 6-Piece Bonus
    • Your primary skills deal 10000% more damage
• Leonine Bow of Hashir
  • Bolas have a 30% 100% chance on explosion to pull in all enemies within 24 yards, and also deal 100-150% increased damage.
• Emimei’s Duffel
  • Bolas now explode instantly and deal 150-175% increased damage.
• The Ninth Cirri Satchel
  • Hungering Arrow has 20-25% is guaranteed to pierce and also deals 450-600% increased damage.
• Odyssey’s End
  • Enemies snared by your Entangling Shots take 20-25% 100-150% increased damage from all sources.
• Hunter’s Wrath
  • Your primary skills attack 30% faster and deal 45-60% 150-200% increased damage.
• Holy Point Shot
  • Impale throws 2 additional knives and deals 75-100% increased damage.

Necromancer

Developer’s Note: With the adjustments coming in for a few past Necromancer sets and abilities, we will continue to evaluate the performance of the new set this season and may make additional adjustments in future seasons if we believe they are necessary.

• New Necromancer Set: Masquerade of the Burning Carnival
  • 2-Piece Bonus
    • Your Simulacrums no longer take damage, gains all runes, and its cooldown is refreshed when you die.
  • 4-Piece Bonus
    • While you have a Simulacrum, damage is reduced by 50%. Damage you take is split with your Simulacrums as well.
  • 6-Piece Bonus
    • Your Bone Spear deals 10,000% increased damage. Simulacrums gain triple this bonus.
• Grasps of Essence
  • When an exploded corpse damages at least one enemy, Your Corpse Explosion deals 75-100% 150-200% increased damage for 6 seconds, stacking up to 5 times.
• Haunted Visions
  • Simulacrum now drains 5% 1% of your maximum life every second and lasts twice as long forever. They can now duplicate Grim Scythe instead of Skeletal Mage.
• Razeth’s Volition
  • Skeletal Mage gains the effect of the Gift of Death and Singularity runes. You gain 35-60% damage reduction if your Essence is not full.
• Jesseth Arms
  • 2-Piece Set Bonus: While your skeletons are commanded to attack a target, you deal 400% increased damage.
• Grace of Inarius
  • 4-Piece Set Bonus: Bone Armor grants an additional 2% 3% damage reduction per enemy hit.
• Pestilence Master’s Shroud
  • 6-Piece Set Bonus: Each corpse you consume grants you an Empowered Bone Spear charge that increases the damage of your next Bone Spear by 3300%. In addition, Corpse Lance and Corpse Explosion damage is increased by 1650% 3300%.

Crusader

• Shield of Fury
  • This effect may stack up to 20 10 times.

General

• Stone of Jordan
  • Added power: Each of your elemental’s damage bonus is equal to your highest static elemental bonus to skill.
• Reaper’s Wraps
  • Added a 2-second internal cooldown to the Health globe effect.
• Mantle of Channeling
  • Now works with the Necromancer’s Siphon Blood.
• Convention of Elements
  • Added “non-static” to the wording of the legendary power’s description. The functionality is unchanged

 

Skill Changes

• Necromancer
  • Simulacrum
    • These will now warp to the Necromancer if they begin to move too far away from the player. This only works if the Necromancer is wearing the Masquerade of the Burning Carnival set or Haunted Visions.
    • Simulacrums cannot use Grim Scythe (with Haunted Visions) or Skeletal Mage unless the Necromancer had either of those abilities while the Simulacrums were created. 
  • Final Service
    • No longer consumes pets.
    • Final Service now activates before Simulacrum’s Self Sacrifice.
  • Bone Prison
    • Simulacrums now benefit from this passive skill.
  • Serration
    • Simulacrums now benefit from this passive skill.
  • Corpse Explosion
    • Damage increased from 350% to 1050%.
• Witch Doctor
  • Spirit Barrage
    • The Spectres from the Phantasm rune no longer benefit from pet bonuses.

 

Bug Fixes

• Necromancer
  • Fixed an issue where Skeletal Mages were not attacking certain creatures
• PTR Specific: 
  • Note: The following issues were only live on the PTR, but we’re including the fixes here for visibility to indicate intended functionality on live. 
  • Seasonal effects no longer deal area damage. 
  • Seasonal buff resets if player exits and reenters a rift. 
  • Seasonal theme should no longer work in Set Dungeons. 
  • Fixed Maltorius’ Petrified Spike dealing additive bonus damage instead of multiplicative. 
  • Fixed seasonal buff that sometimes may drop off whenever the player enters an invulnerable state. 
  • Changed seasonal buff to base its damage on the amount of kills. (not really a bug, more of a change) 

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