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.
New Builds and Skills
Major changes in store for Necromancers, Barbarians and Amazons
Crossbow Necromancer
- The crossbow tree has been overhauled, offering two distinct damage paths
- The physical path, which includes improved Widowmaker and a brand new ability - Deathly Effigy - which attacks your foes and starts a chain reaction of destruction as soon as the first enemy dies
- The fire path, featuring Buckshot with much improved targeting consistency and a new area clear ability - Catapult Shot - which fires a spread of explosive potions over a large area
- The tree also features a new defensive mechanic which grants physical resist or life on striking depending on your path
- Many items have also been reworked to synergize in awesome ways with the above, making the Crossbow tree a must try for Necromancer fans in 2.6!
Warmonger Barbarian
- The area clear skill, and key passives, now change completely depending on your active combat stance. This makes the throwing tree incredibly versatile for destroying your foes, and provides several viable ways to build a throw barbarian
- This also allows the build to seamlessly transition into being either a physical or lightning burst damage specialist or a poison damage over time master
- In addition the tree features a collection of 5 proficiency passives, which allow you to improve your offensive or defensive capabilities, or boost your chances to find desirable items when killing monsters - such as enchanted runes, rare oils, shrines and signets
- Choose wisely as all Barbarian trees can benefit from these proficiencies, and you are limited to 2 at most!
Hammer Amazon
- It's hammer time! We felt like our last Hammerzon rework did not fully hit the mark, due to mechanical issues with some skills. Therefore, we are revisiting this build with several improvements and new features
- The Storm tree has now properly charged up with support for ALL maces, hammers and mauls. Not only that but her two-handed attack animations have been greatly sped up, allowing the build to explore a wealth of new gear options
- Power shift has been improved, with the hammer now dealing greatly increased damage on a direct hit while also ignoring any obstacles and walls in its way
- Reckoning of Zerae now grants a Weapon Physical Damage bonus based on your strength or dexterity, whichever is greater. This bonus is greatly increased when wielding a two-handed weapon
- Discharge buff duration has been massively increased and now lasts 3 minutes at level 1
Many more balance changes and optimizations for other builds will be included in the full patch notes
Dungeon Quests
Continuing our Dungeon Refresh Program
Infernal Machine- Has been completely redesigned, with the cave split in two areas
- The bottom area is filled with traps, inhabited by a reanimating horde of Rot Walkers and bathed in frostfire
- The top area is safe from boss attacks and the unrelenting undead, but you take continuous cold damage over time and ranged attacks are impeded by sentry knights
- Rewards
- You will earn crafting materials upon dismantling the Infernal Machine
- 6 Sacred item bases, which will allow you to craft or create a runeword at an early stage
- 2 Oils of Lesser Alchemy, which can be used to make crafted amulets!
Death Projector (Uber)- New dungeon quest, requires level 121
- The hardened version of Death Projector casts more skills and requires additional nearby mechanics to break shield
- Quest instructions are found on freshly dropped Laser Focus Crystals
- Upon completion, transmuting a Mark of Victory will double the charm's stats
Quality of Life
Several endgame convenience improvements
Some of the quality-of-life improvements introduced in patch 2.6 include:- Bosses which teleport when struck now have a cooldown for doing so, allowing for a less interrupted and more enjoyable boss-killing experience. The cooldown is usually 3-5 seconds, depending on the boss
- Improved trophy farming by increasing rates on some bosses such as Baal, Uldyssian, Inarius and Juris Khan, while also adding features to make bosses like Azmodan, Belial, and Witch faster to rerun
- Reduced slowing effects on multiple bosses
- Replaced the "Vampire" AI of all bosses (the one which annoyingly caused them to flee under 25% health) with our first new AI, which no longer causes them to run and cry in a corner when they are about to get smacked
- Increased Purify speed
And more!
There are more changes not listed in this announcement, including new Sacred Uniques, new Mirror Temple set rotation (Red Vex' Embrace, Creed, Tundra Walker, Marchosias' Essence, Satanic Mantra, Yaerius' Grey Omen, Elemental Children), improved most Sleep trophy bonuses, new Nithogur relics, new TSW Score features and more! See you soon in Season 34
Check our discord for regular leaks on new patch!
