Patch 1.5.3b Notes

General changes:

• Added a load balancer which should reduce network lag.
• The Necromantic Talisman got a description that states its functionality.
• Fixed the quirk that the backpack would start to collect 1×1 items even before it was actually in your possession, while still in the quest reward slot.

 

Item changes:

• Drop chance for Vipers, Id Pulsars, and Puppet Masters got reduced.
• Drop chance for recently added world drop Uniques got reduced.
• Drop chance of Dreadmasks, NavShells, and Spiked Guards got reduced.
• Empyreal Cannon and Contagion Delivery Device are now tradeable.
• The Rate of Fire of Templar nova guns was increased to 60/min from 30/min.
  • This change excludes the Unique Novastorm and all Starburst nova guns.
• Thermo Cannons’ interaction with Ravager Rounds got fixed, and each missile will only damage the same target once from now on.
• Reduced the chance for extra pellets on Jackhammers to 25% each from 66% and 33%.
• Reduced the attack speed of Shock Rail Pistols to 80/min from 120/min.
• Increased the splash radius on Core Magnums to 1m from 0.5m including their unique variations.
• Increased the splash radius of Vigilantes to 1.5m from 0.5m including their unique variation.

 

Cube and crafting changes:

• Armor and guns that crafter NPCs and blueprints produce will always be for your class. 
  • Focus items, swords, and shields may still be produced, regardless of your class.

• The essence requirement for the Cube’s Mythic recipe got reduced to 25 Spectral and   Demon essences from 100 Spectral and Demon essences.
• The Enhanced boss ring recipes were renamed to “Upgraded” for clarity.
• You can now reforge 3 identical legendary boss rings into a new one in the Cube, without the chance of it becoming unique.
• A new Mythic mod reforging recipe has been added to the Cube. The results will still be random.
• New crafting recipes were added to the Cube, which won’t show up in your recipe list. Specifically: 
  • 3 identical types of armor/weapon with a quality of Double-Edged, Legendary or Mythic can be combined into a new random one for that slot type, e.g. 3 legendary helms will create a new legendary helm, 3 one-handed weapons will create a new one-handed weapon, etc. The resulting item will always be for your class regardless of the ingredient items’ class requirement. These recipes can occasionally roll a bunch of nanoshards for you as a result, instead of producing an item.
    • In the case of focus items, swords, and shields, the resulting item will be the same as the ingredients regardless of your class.

 

Shields got reworked:

• Each type of shield got reworked in a specific role in mind. Lower base damage ones got splash damage, while higher base damage ones remained direct; some of them spawn with high critical chance others with high critical damage; some come with an uncommon amount of slots.
  • The base damage type, inherent sfx attack strength type and value, and the inherent sfx defense type and value of each shield type got modified to provide a unique character and purpose for each shield type.
• All shields excluding your initial one can now spawn with mod slots.
  • The overall inherent sfx attack strengths on shields got lowered to counterbalance the existence of slots, and to promote maxing shield skills, which grant you increased sfx attacks strengths.
• The base damage of all shields was increased by 100%.

 

Skill changes:

• The Summoner’s Spellstorm and Spectral Strike skills incorrectly stated their passive behavior, therefore this tag got removed from the skill description. They now correctly state these buffs only strengthen your Demon during the skill effect.
• Reduced the size multiplier for Carnagor under the effect of Meat Shield.
• Reduced the character size multiplier of Great Defender.

 

Evoker skill changes:

• Firestorm’s damage per level was increased to 10% from 5%, and its ignite attack strength was increased by 100%. Damage was converted to splash from direct.
• Damage of Spectral Lash was increased by 67%.
• Damage of Arc Legion was increased by 67%. Changed the bonus per level from shock attack strength and damage to 3% Armor Penetration per level. The default shock attack strength got adjusted to make up for the old bonus. Power cost increased by 25%.
• Damage of Drain Power was increased by 166%.
• Damage of Drain Life was increased by 275%. 
  • This change also affects the Summoner version of this skill.
• Damage of the initial explosion of Hellfire was increased by 100%. Field damage was increased by 33%.
• Phase attack strength calculation of Spectral Lash got reworked to better match with the shock attack strength of Arc Legion.
• Phase attack strength of Spectral Nova was increased by 100%.
• Ignite attack strength of Flameshards was increased by 100%.
• Ignite attack strength of Hellfire was increased by 150%.
• Poison attack strengths of Venomous Spirit and Venom Armor were increased by 500%. 
  • This change also affects the Summoner versions of these skills.
• Wall of Bone can be targeted by monsters from now on, and attackers suffer thorns damage which scales with player level.

 

Guardian skill changes:

• All shield attacks gained Shield Master’s 70% increased damage bonus by default.
• Shield Master no longer has a skill pre-requirement, and it no longer grants increased damage of shield skills. Instead, it provides increased critical chance and critical damage to all offensive shield skills.
• Shield Throw no longer grants critical chance per level, but increased range instead. Base shield throw range reduced to 15m from 20m. Changed the maximum retarget count to 8 from 2.
• Decreased the shield bonus granted by Shield Wall. The skill now also grants an increasing shield recharge delay reduction per skill level.

 

Marksman skill changes:

• Overshield now also increases your shield regeneration and decreases shield regeneration delay while active.
• Multishot’s skill description now correctly states the 45% base damage multiplier on grenades and strikes while the skill is active.
• EMP Blast is now a lv10 skill, and its cooldown was reduced to 30 seconds.
• White-Out Grenade is now a lv30 skill.
  • The skill tokens Nesmith’s Blast Cell and ElectroMag, which unlock White-Out Grenade and EMP Blast respectively, had their sources swapped to account for the respective skill level changes.

 

Engineer skill changes:

• Medpak Retrofit’s description now correctly states that its bonus also applies to shields.
• Molotov Assault’s description changed to make it more in-line with other skill descriptions.

 

Blademaster changes:

• Templar Restoration now also restores shields for the same % amount it does for health. The skill’s description changed accordingly.
• The Thorns skill got reworked and it’s now called Holy Instinct, instead of physical thorns it grants you Melee Evasion. 
• Grammatical changes were made on Crusader Wrath’s skill description.

 

Monster changes:

• All Champions’ SFX fields on death have had their SFX attack strength lowered by 50%, and the state duration of the physical one by 50%.
• Gatekeeper should only take 2% damage per ignite tick instead of the default 5%.
• All Juggernauts got the Unyielding affix which increases their armor rating.
• All Morphoids got the Overloaded affix which increases their shield overload value, and their ignite attack strength also increased.
• The Mindripper got new affixes, and can drop its first-time loot any time you kill it.
• The following early-game Named mobs got new affixes to make them more challenging or unique:

 

Fat Bully

Typhoid Mary

Sleestak 

Big Ben

Fangsnort

Mini Dynamo

Zeder

The Harrow Witch

The Sandman

The Phantom

 

 

 

• Fat Bully can now drop some low-level Named Rare items which were meant to be quest rewards by FSS, but remained unreleased. These are the following:

 

Hand of Manos

Gambeson’s Hellcat

Griswaldo’s Lament

Gulliver’s Slicer

Infernal Halo

The Bleeder

The Burnshredder

Zeus’s Fist

 

 

 

 

 

Level changes:

• Savage Fiends in Physical Rifts were replaced by Razor Carnagors.

 

Quest related changes:

• The item level of daily quest rewards in Parliament Square was increased.  You can now get Abyss-specific weapons and armor as a reward, and they can spawn with a higher tier of properties.
• Repeatable and Daily quests state this in their name from now on.
• Quest Firesnaps got replaced by Chimeradons.

 

New items:

• A new tier of Thermal Bolters, called XM44 Palladium Bolters, got introduced, and can drop from lvl33. They can fire 2 additional missiles at 33% rate for each at a cost of lower base ignite strength and higher accuracy feed than their lower-tier variants.
• A new tier of Thermo Cannons, called XM271 Thermo Cannon, got introduced, and can drop from lvl32. Their base damage is fully physical splash unlike the lower tier ones, and they come with an increased accuracy feed cost compared to them.
• A Unique variation of XM271 Thermo Cannon, named Withering Tube, got introduced, and can be acquired as a world drop.
• One-handed variations of the XM666 Bladesaw and Bladefrenzy got introduced called XM333 Bladesaw and XM333 Bladefrenzy (nightmare version). Instead of armor, they have shield and evasion as their inherent property.
• New Legendary items can be acquired through a rare encounter in Savile Row or St. James Park. These are:

 

Blackheart (XM333 Bladesaw)

Rebellion (XM333 Bladesaw)

Korosukuma’s Claw (Darkclaw)

Daybreak (Firebrand)

Mr. Steven’s lazer sword (Lightning Sword)

Necrobro (Viper)

 

 

Achievement changes:

• Added a new achievement related to Fat Bully which grants you a new title and a passive skill.