Freeze
Onward to WoW
Update - July 16, 2002
A quick update with some new info. Current patch work is still focusing on skills, and it sounds like there are quite a few changes and balances being made. We don't have any details, but you might want to take a look at the skill change speculation at the bottom of page two if you haven't already.
There will be extensive changes to monsters. Almost all monsters on Nightmare and Hell are being rebalanced. We're assuming this means they'll be harder, have more resistances and hit points, possibly do more damage, etc. In addition, monsters are getting beefed up AI. Again, we don't know exactly what this means, but they may move faster, react faster, be less distracted by your minions, etc.
Ladder characters have been a topic of discussion, as to whether they'll remain separate when season 2 starts, or go back into the general population. Many of you have emailed to say you hope they'll stay separate from the current characters, who are of course all full of super items, tons of dupes, SoJ economy, etc. As of now, Blizzard is planning on returning season one ladder characters to the current population once season 2 begins. Their reasoning is what we've been saying; they don't want to have a bunch of different groups of characters who can't mix together.
There will doubtless be more discussion of this once the patch is out, and then again once the second v1.10 ladder season is approaching (which won't be until at least 3 months after v1.10) and it's possible Blizzard could change their plans, based on player feedback. So stay tuned.
With the patch designers still working on the skills (which is a huge project) and with many items and other things to change after that, and then all of the QA testing, we're backing up our patch release estimate. =( Our not-very-educated guess is now late August at the soonest, and more likely we'll be into September before v1.10 arrives.
A quick update with some new info. Current patch work is still focusing on skills, and it sounds like there are quite a few changes and balances being made. We don't have any details, but you might want to take a look at the skill change speculation at the bottom of page two if you haven't already.
There will be extensive changes to monsters. Almost all monsters on Nightmare and Hell are being rebalanced. We're assuming this means they'll be harder, have more resistances and hit points, possibly do more damage, etc. In addition, monsters are getting beefed up AI. Again, we don't know exactly what this means, but they may move faster, react faster, be less distracted by your minions, etc.
Ladder characters have been a topic of discussion, as to whether they'll remain separate when season 2 starts, or go back into the general population. Many of you have emailed to say you hope they'll stay separate from the current characters, who are of course all full of super items, tons of dupes, SoJ economy, etc. As of now, Blizzard is planning on returning season one ladder characters to the current population once season 2 begins. Their reasoning is what we've been saying; they don't want to have a bunch of different groups of characters who can't mix together.
There will doubtless be more discussion of this once the patch is out, and then again once the second v1.10 ladder season is approaching (which won't be until at least 3 months after v1.10) and it's possible Blizzard could change their plans, based on player feedback. So stay tuned.
With the patch designers still working on the skills (which is a huge project) and with many items and other things to change after that, and then all of the QA testing, we're backing up our patch release estimate. =( Our not-very-educated guess is now late August at the soonest, and more likely we'll be into September before v1.10 arrives.
