Σ 2.3.0 Announced - Median XL (2024)

Disclaimer: this topic is a teaser and everything is subject to change. The full patch notes will be released 2 days prior to the new season.

Attack-Ground for Melee Skills

Melee builds receive a much-needed gameplay modernization

We're always looking for ways to modernize the gameplay without taking away the unique feel of playing Diablo. In the upcoming 2.3 patch, we are rolling the "attack ground" feature for the majority of melee skills. This allows you to shift-click attack, similar to ranged spells, without the need of name-locking a target or clicking the mouse repeatedly, which can prove painful over time. There are still scenarios where you'll want the old name-locking functionality, and that's still going to be possible, this new system adds on top of the previous one, leaving the decision to you.

The following skills are now able to "attack ground": Impale, Great Hunt, Hyena Strike, Noctule, Crucify, Earthquake, Shower of Rocks, Thunder Slam, Iron Spiral, Primordial Strike, Wildfire, Twisted Claw, Carnage, Divine Judgement, Retaliate, Lemures, Blood Thorns, Bladestorm, Glacial Torrent, Spiral Dance, Charged strike, Black Lotus Strike, Death Blossom, Winter Avatar, Gorefest, Ancient's Hand, Medusa, Whirlpool, Stormblast, Iceburst, Deathgaze and Batstrike
"On attack" events (healing and procs) will only trigger if the main swing targets an enemy (whether using shift or not)
Name-locking can still be used when needed, like before
Several skills that triggered a buff on-attack have been converted to buffs: Shadow Refuge, Conflux, Moonstrike and Conquest

Storm Amazon

The featured build of patch 2.3 brings new skills, mechanics, and streamlined hammer and thunder specs

Storm amazon was initially conceived as a tree that could be played as a spellcaster, weapon damage melee, and anywhere in between. Eventually, the lack of streamlining and connection between skills made the build decent at many things, but rarely great at any, with a lack of itemization further adding to the problem. The new Storm tree consists of two mutually exclusive paths (Hammer and Thunder), with a selection of passive/buff skills available to both paths.

Earlygame Build Balance

Improvements in normal playthrough for builds that felt lacking compared to other performers

Thanks to the amazing efforts from the community and testing team we are implementing a series of suggestions to address the early issues multiple builds have until act 3 in Normal difficulty. The spike in character progress granted by the deterministic nature of both Tiered Uniques and the ability to farm shards makes it all more difficult to accomplish a difficulty curve that feels streamlined both in gameplay and number scaling. While we are brainstorming ideas to address this issue in the long term, we continue to notice certain skills underperforming in the pre-30 level range.

The next patch will feature multiple improvements at this stage for a variety of builds, with some minor density and area-level improvements on the side.

Endgame Content

Revamped quests, better Dimensional Labyrinth progression, and improved drops

In addition to changes in the early game, we are also making improvements on the opposite end. This goes from revamping quests that we feel have outdated mechanics to making further improvements to the endgame farming loop, both in terms of playability and drop rates.

Astrogha

Completely reworked boss fight while keeping to the theme of the original and being lore-friendly
No longer extremely punishing for melee characters, removed one-shot debuff mechanics
Split into two phases, the cunning spider has one final trick when near death
The Web of Deceit now has a 5-minute lockout timer
Life roll on the charm is now +(200-500), up from +(100-500) to compensate for the increased fight duration

Dimensional Labyrinth + Deimoss

Overhauled the reward structure to make the zone more rewarding and give a better sense of progression
The Dimensional Key charm now has a 50% chance to drop from Corrupted Heroes on yellow floors, rather than Deimoss
There are now four different types of base charms as opposed to one, each tailored to different archetypes: physical weapon, elemental weapon, caster & summoner (max 1 charm per character)
You will now unlock bonuses as you progress through the Riftstones to complete several Dimensional Quests:
- Trial of Discovery: transmute one of every depleted Riftstone with the charm. Adds magic find with increasing returns based on the stone tier. Reward: +75% magic find
- Trial of Purity: transmute the rare miniboss drops (star chart pieces & dream fragments). Adds bonuses depending on charm base. Reward: +75% Enhanced Weapon Damage or +16% Innate Elemental Damage or +30% Spell Damage or +100% Minion Damage
- End the Invasion: defeat Deimoss to add a bonus to your Dimensional Key. Reward: +5% Deadly Strike or +(100 to 200) Tri-Elemental damage or +5% Spell Focus bonus or +5% Maximum Life and Mana
- Trial of the Nephalem: complete the above three quests. Reward: unlocks the final two hard mode quests
- Occult Smithing: defeat Deimoss with exactly 3 optional difficulty modifiers. Reward: unlocks the Occult Effigy upgrade recipe. Transmute two identical Effigies to receive a higher tier. Unlimited uses
- Dimensional Alchemy: defeat Deimoss with exactly 5 optional difficulty modifiers. Reward: unlocks the Relic crafting recipe. Transmute a Depleted Riftstone (10) to receive a random relic. 5 charges

And more!

More unannounced features and changes...

This, as usual, is not the full list of changes coming in the next patch so you can expect to see the full list of changes with the release of the patch notes. You can visit our Discord community for occasional leakages from the team or join our beta testing realm by supporting us on Patreon, if you want to contribute to the development of the patch or project. Thanks for all your support and we'll see you soon in our 31st season!