Median XL - Version Log

Median XL 2017

- Patch 1.0 -

Changelog Index

Balance Reworks
Damage Rework
Magic Damage Rework
Speed Rework
Skill Description Rework
General
Monsters
General
Act Bosses
Superuniques
Other
Challenges
Uberquests
General
Heroic Bosses
Dungeon
Summoning
Uberlevels
Areas
General
Act 1
Act 2
Act 3
Act 4
Act 5
Amazon
Bow
Javelin
Spear
Blood
Storm
Neutral
Reward
Assassin
General
Innate
Claw
Throw
Ninja
Martial
Psionics
Traps
Reward
Barbarian
Champion
Berserker
Throw
Spirits
Special
Stance
Reward
Druid
General
Treewarden
Trap Rat
Werewolf
Seer
Venom
Bow
Reward
Necromancer
Totem
Support
Summon
Malice
Melee
Crossbow
Reward
Paladin
Honor
Light
Dragon
Demon
Shadow
Wicked
Reward
Sorceress
Fire
Lightning
Cold
Poison
Arcane
Melee
Reward
Oskills
Items
General
Uniques
Sets
Runewords
Other
Cube Recipes
Shrinecrafting
Mystic Orbs
Other Recipes
Vendors - NPCs
Rare Affix Pool
Item Drops
Other
Multiplayer - Season 14


Balance Reworks

WARNING: highly conceptual

DAMAGE REWORK [+]

All player damage AND monster life have been reduced by the same amount. In real terms, nothing has changed. If it took you two fireballs to kill a monster before it will still take you two. If you have played Median before then the following things are changed and they do NOT make your character weaker:

Less spell damage from all sources, lower base damage of spells
Lower base weapon damage, Enhanced Damage stat now caps at 200%
Lower Weapon Damage Modifiers on skills
Lower amounts of added flat damage - both physical/magical and elemental
Reduced lifesteal penalties to 1/1 (H), 1/7 (T) and 1/15 (D)

The damage rework has also allowed us to address one of the long standing problems of endgame Median - that physical and magical damage skills were near useless because they had no appropriate resistance pierce stat on gear. With this in mind and in order to keep physical/magical damage types more balanced in relation to the elements the following changes have been made:

Resistances of regular enemies (includes elites and Uber level regulars):
0 all on Hatred
0 physical/magical, 15 fire/cold/lightning and 5 poison on Terror
0 physical/magical, 35 fire/cold/lightning and 20 poison on Destruction
Resistances of Bosses on Destruction: (15-35)% physical/magical, (50-70)% fire/cold/lightning, (40-Immune)% poison

Reductions to the amounts of elemental pierce on gear and skills:
The easiest to obtain items such as Tiered Uniques, up to lvl 100 Runewords, Rares and Crafts have 50% less pierce
Harder to obtain items such as sets and Greater Runewords have received a smaller reduction to pierce
The hardest obtainable items - the Sacred Uniques - have received the smallest reduction to pierce
Skills have, in general, received a 50% pierce reduction across the board, with several exceptions

With the removal of Heroic Shields and the revamped monster resistances it was necessary that we re-evaluate the amount of crushing blow as well. Due to the multi hit nature of virtually all skills this stat has always been vastly more powerful in Median than ever intended within the design of the Diablo 2 engine. Therefore we have reduced the amount of crushing blow present on items and skills by 50% with some exceptions.

To keep Enhanced Damage and Enhanced Defense rolls consistent, we have reduced the cap of Enhanced Defense to 200%.
The base defense of all armors has been buffed to compensate for the above change.

MAGIC DAMAGE REWORK [+]

We want there to be a damage type that when used against players delivers its intended value regardless of your gear choice. It will never be widespread because we want gear to matter, but it is beneficial in many situations where we would rather test a player's skill and/or reflexes rather than their equipment choice.

Of course we could always circumvent this by adding debuff auras on bosses, but this is not desirable since it adds more overhead, more chances for unintended interactions, more work and more performance problems. Thus we intend this damage type to be Magic and begin laying the groundwork for this paradigm with Median 2017.

Magic Resistance values on gear have been greatly reduced.
Maximum Magic Resistance on the Riptide runeword has been replaced.
Summons which were previously magic immune now have some physical resistance instead.
Removed magic immunity from most reanimates.
Resurrected Revenants lose their magic immunity.

SPEED REWORK [+]

All animations which were previously 4 or 5 frames long are now one frame longer
Cast rate with Orbs and Wands is now only 1 frame slower compared to wielding a staff
The amount of faster cast rate needed to reach your maximum breakpoint has been standardised
Weapon speeds have been reworked. Two-handed weapons are now slower compared to one-handed equivalents
Heavier weapons such as maces and axes are slower in comparison to lighter weapons such as swords and daggers
The weapons which were slowed the most by this change have received a base damage buff
Fixed a bug where Naginatas always maxed out your attack animation even with no attack speed

SKILL DESCRIPTION REWORK [+]

The descriptions of synergies have been greatly simplified. There are now two new terms which describe most of the interactions:
per Base Level: you only gain the bonus if you have directly invested a skill point into the skill (previously: hard points)
per Skill Level: you gain the bonus for every skill level increase, no matter where it comes from

The way that skills which use your weapon damage display the amount of weapon damage modifier (WDM) has changed.
For example: previously 3/5, 5/4 now become 60%, 125% etc.

Text on the tooltips has been reduced by cutting out irrelevant information. Examples:
Range: 10 yards or Shoots every 5 seconds but the range/time never changes.
Hits multiple times, what doesn't? This is Median after all.

Whenever a skill applies a buff, debuff or aura, the stats are grouped under its name, which is displayed in an orange colour.
Damage boosting skills will now correctly state what damage type they are boosting.
All class skills now have one of the following type prefixes:
Attack - requires a melee weapon hit, and works with on attack triggers
Projectile - delivers a weapon damage hit, does not work with on attack triggers but does work with on striking
Spell - never miss, generally do not involve weapon damage. Do not trigger on kill effects unless poison damage
Warp - a skill which involves character movement
Warp Strike - a skill which involves character movement and delivers a projectile hit
Passive - adds passive stats to your character
Buff - the skill must be cast in order to grant the listed bonuses, expires after some time
Debuff - same as a buff except it negatively affects monsters, rather than positively affecting your hero
Summon - creates a minion that fights for you

Reduced overly long-winded explanations on Reward Skills.
Improved the icons on many skills.
Improved the wording and brevity of many commonly used text strings.

General

Introducing the Median XL Core. This allows us to implement some really cool features that were not possible to implement before.

Max character level increased to 125. Beware - the last 5 levels are very difficult to obtain!
Gold is now automatically picked up outside of act towns
Increased the limit of areas the game can have. This means new ubers will be added, without replacing existing areas
Highest possible character resistances have been capped to 90%
Damage cap removed
Monster health cap removed
Third-party cheats (Qoo, Sting's, Multires) have been disabled. Hooray for a cheater-free game

To accomplish these reworks it was necessary to drop character compatibility with previous patches.
D2SE and PlugY 10.00 still work. You will need to edit their .ini files to load MXL.dll.
Additionally, innate Mac compatibility had to be dropped. Sorry.

Monsters

GENERAL

Reworked health and damage of all monsters on hatred and terror difficulties
Reduced variety of monsters spawning on levels to reduce clutter and improve difficulty curve
Elite monsters will now generously drop potions, similar to how champions dropped them in classic Diablo
Increased experience given by all monsters on destruction difficulty by 25%
Monsters in hatred difficulty are now more vulnerable to life steal
Removed stun effects from bosses that caused desynch and reward cheesing
Fixed a bug with Summoner AI that would cause it to select target with low elemental resistances

ACT BOSSES

Andariel: increased health on terror and destruction difficulties
Duriel: increased health on terror and destruction difficulties, removed Amp aura
Mephisto: increased health on terror and destruction difficulties
Diablo: increased health on terror and destruction difficulties, reduced melee hit on hatred difficulty
Baal: increased health on terror and destruction difficulties, reworked the way shardspawns are spawned

SUPERUNIQUES

Buffed the health of several superuniques on terror and destruction difficulties
Griswold: no longer has melee-only aura on destruction difficulty
Ancients: removed avoid, increased health to compensate. Level reward won't work past level 120
Shenk: increased health and damage on all difficulties
Doomcloud: reduced amount of minions due to sprite overflow
The Summoner: increased health and damage
Countess: reduced firewall damage

OTHER

Porkchop: fixed broken palette causing glitched colors
Startled Witch: removed in regular world areas for obvious reasons
Trap Rat: reduced damage
Djinn: reduced damage on immolation bomb proc
Ni'Va: reduced pack size
Detonator: chance to proc detonate has been changed to 33%-66%-100% based on difficulty
Onyx Knight: reduced damage on terror and destruction difficulties
Fireblood: slightly reduced damage
Daystar: spawn in smaller packs now, increased damage to compensate

Challenges

Challenge Scrolls: new items dropped by key bosses which will describe the challenges in-game, so players don't miss them
Level Challenge 0: removed due to the unfairness of avaiable skills on certain builds before level 6
Level Challenge 1: all trials cap at level 50 now
Level Challenge 2: consists of defeating the Death Projector on Terror difficulty before level 90
Dragon Eggs: removed as they serve no purpose with the disabled feature of rerolling rare items
Crowned Minigame: removed as it was dumb. Reward moved to Spirit of Damnation charm

Uberquests

General

Removed all heroic shields from the game
Increased experience in Vizjun, Khalimgrad, Tran Athulua, Kurast 3000 BA, Fauztinvile and Duncraig on Destruction difficulty

HEROIC BOSSES

Xazax (New Boss): replaces Brachyceran in the Wretched Sands
Quov Tsin: reworked battle [+]
No longer pierces elemental resistances
Soulstealer: will heal 5% of his maximum life whenever he kills a unit
Trinity Beam: damage increased
New Skill: Bone Nova
Astrogha: reworked battle [+]
Boss spawns less traps, and destroying them will now only heal him for 4% of his maximum life
Frozen Orb: ignores cold immunity, melee trigger radius reduced
Darklings: will rarely retaliate with Deathstrike when slain
New Skill: Dimeritium Aura
Kabraxis: reworked battle [+]
Now casts Punisher Barrage once again
Greatly reduced the number of shadow selves summoned, but they are tougher. Fixed desync issues on realm
No longer spawns a swarm of worms when he kills a unit
Soulstealer: will heal 5% of his maximum life whenever he kills a unit
Broadside: removed
New Skill: Judgment Day
Bull Prince Rodeo: reduced Cow Rush damage, increased Fowl Fight damage

DUNGEON

Viz'Jun: Master Control System now takes 2 purify hits to be destroyed, reduced mobs health by 20%
Uldyssian: reworked battle [+]
Reworked AI to be less spammy and smarter
New location: Uldyssian's Tomb
Edyrems: damage, speed and spawn numbers decreased, they are now infused with Nephalem power, now spawn defensively
New Skill: Spectral Throw
Reworked stage that required reflected damage
The Void: reworked boss fight and Soul of Pride, eternal ghosts no longer drop shrines and deal magic damage
Startled Witch: reduced damage and projectiles on Origin of Symmetry skill
Infernal Machine: reduced health
Death Projector: reduced health and mechanic's damage on terror difficulty

SUMMONING

MarcoNecroX: removed
Brother Laz: renamed to Archbishop Lazarus to avoid real-life references
Zorun Tzin: now summons citizens instead of rats, now casts Devastation and drops Mystic Shard
Tal Rasha: greatly reduced elemental pierce of him and his minions, increased health
Akarat: greatly reduced follower damage, slightly increased health
Lord Aldric Jitan: reduced heal rate

UBERLEVELS

The Secret Cow Level: slightly reduced density to prevent performance issues
Island of the Sunless Sea: reduced the lag caused by Sunless Revelers
Yshari Sanctum: reworked Polar Worm's on-death proc, slightly increased Valthek's health
Unformed Land: reduced Terul's health, avoid and regeneration
The Triune: increased flat damage dealt by Primus' Messenger
Tran Athulua: reduced density, more in hatred
Fauztinville: slightly reduced density

Areas

GENERAL

Automaps: created/improved automap entries for Tran Athulua, Duncraig and Yshari Sanctum

ACT 1

Rogue Encampent: reworked map
Duncraig: now has only one map variant (new one), improved stage and removed annoying bush

ACT 2

Lut Gholein: reworked map
Maggot Lairs: restored areas and mobs
Wretched Sands: can now be found in the depths of Duriel's Lair. Reworked area
Tran Athulua: improved and increased stage, passages are wider (rip barrels), added more trees
Uldyssian's Tomb: new area where you can find and defeat Uldyssian himself after going through the 30 stages

ACT 3

Flayer Dungeons: restored area and mobs
Sewers: restored area and mobs
World Nexus: moved location to the Proving Grounds
Kurast 3000 BA: moved location to the Travincal
Proving Grounds: fixed unwalkable spots in the stage

ACT 4

Pandemonium Fortress: reverted map to original

ACT 5

Harrogath: reverted map to original
Unformed Land: moved location to Harrogath (south part), is now a 7-floor tower
Khalimgrad: small chance to drop Wings of the Departed, to honor the death of a member of the community

Amazon

BOW

Sun Strike: damage increased, now gains an extra arrow per 3 base levels
Phalanx: area coverage decreased, damage per second increased, mana progression reworked
Wyrmshot: initial range increased, range synergy reduced, damage increased, mana progression reworked

JAVELIN

Moonbeam: damage increased, regeneration reduced slightly, mana progression reworked
Ricochet: now gains one extra target per base level
Enfilade: bonus cold damage increased, initial range increased, range gain per level reduced, less mana cost at level 1
Moon Queen: increased the weapon physical damage bonus
Fairy Ring: increased bonus fire damage, slightly reduced weapon damage, now costs significantly less mana at level 1

SPEAR

Takedown: mana cost reduced
Hyena Strike: poison damage increased
Great Hunt: is now a level 12 skill, damage greatly increased, base number of spirits increased, mana cost reduced
Pounce: is now a level 24 skill, mana cost increased significantly

BLOOD

Magic Missiles: damage increased
Balefire: damage reduced
Bloodstorm: reduced Bloodstar seek range while Bacchanalia is active, gains slightly less duration per level
Bacchanalia: now activates when your hero is below 2/3 maximum life
Lava Pit: damage increased

STORM

Thundercrack: weapon damage increased, now adds flat lightning damage until higher levels, converts less damage to lightning
Stormcall: mana cost increased
Hammer of Zerae: weapon damage greatly increased, flying scepters now rotate more rapidly
Asterism: no longer gives melee dodge - now grants bonus maximum damage per base level instead, defense bonus increased
Magnetic Field: greatly increased damage

NEUTRAL

Fire Elementals: increased life, damage and attack rating; maximum number of minions is now 15

REWARD

Paragon: slightly increased vitality bonus per gem
Spirit of Vengeance: will no longer be attacked by monsters, slightly increased the spell damage bonus, reduced reanimation rate

Assassin

GENERAL

Increased health gained per level

INNATE

Bloodbath: heal reduced, no longer requires dual wield, limited to claw and naginata only

CLAW

Batstrike: complete rework - every stage is now cast individually, but they are all improved and the attack animation is faster
Twin Fang Strike: is now a claw only skill that requires level 12, damage increased, base mana cost reduced
Shadow Dancer: base critical strike chance and bonus physical damage per level have both been increased
Noctule: no longer requires dual wield, weapon damage greatly increased, magic damage increased, attack animation is faster

THROW

Scorpion Blade: damage increased, number of knives increased, now gets an extra knife for every 4 points in Maelstrom MkV
Storm Crows: damage increased, base number of knives decreased, bonus knives outside combat tripled, mana cost reworked
Maelstrom MkV: damage increased, bonus magic damage from dexterity has been greatly increased, mana cost increased
Wychwind: rift duration reduced, vulnerability duration decreases twice as fast per base level, improved rift animation
Broadside: damage slightly reduced

NINJA

Backstab: increased the crushing blow bonus while cloaked, fixed bug that allowed immortality when morphed into superbeast
Barrier Strike: is now a level 12 Ninja skill, requires a naginata, damage increased, critical hit chance gain per base level increased
Hades Gate: weapon damage doubled, now requires a naginata, fixed range, mana cost increases with skill level

MARTIAL

Way of the Spider: poison damage to weapon increased slightly, poison spell damage increased, doubled initial damage bonus
Queen of Blades: now gains an extra blade every 2 base levels
Way of the Phoenix: fire spell damage increased, doubled initial damage bonus

PSIONICS

Shuriken Flurry: is now a level 1 skill, damage and mana cost increased
Psionic Storm: is now a level 6 skill, damage increased, initial mana cost greatly reduced but now increases more steeply per level
Psionic Scream: is now a level 12 skill, fixed range, flee duration reduced, base cooldown reduced, mana cost reworked
Singularity: now targetable, damage reduced, cooldown increased slightly, reworked mana cost
Doom: the amount of reduced enemy magic resistance now scales with base level

TRAPS

Cluster Bomb: now targetable, damage increased, area reduced for better overlap, mana cost reworked; replaces Cluster Mine
Electrofield Sentry: is now a level 6 skill, lightning fuse no longer has next delay, damage increased, mana cost slightly increased
Limpet Laser: is now a level 12 skill, damage increased, reduced beam range, now gains an extra mine per 9 base levels
Fireball Sentry: fireball fuse no longer has next delay, damage increased, mana cost increased
Tiefling Form: no longer transforms you, the base cast speed of Assassins with claws has been increased

REWARD

Obliteration: is now the Black Road Challenge reward skill, damage greatly increased
Way of the Gryphon: lightning spell damage increased, doubled initial damage bonus
Phase Bomb: damage increased

Barbarian

CHAMPION

Earthquake: weapon damage greatly increased, bonus damage increased, hitbox increased, reworked mana cost
Iron Spiral: now requires a sword, damage greatly increased, now converts to lightning, added bonus to attack rating
Stormblast: is now a level 12 skill, now requires a sword, damage increased, added bonus to attack rating, initial range increased
Windform: is now a level 18 skill, now requires a sword, weapon damage doubled, bonus damage reduced, increased life on striking
Daedalus: reduced the attack rating bonus, no longer increases Blood Hatred duration, increased life bonus and lightning damage

BERSERKER

Blood Hatred: no longer requires dual wield, reduced elemental pierce gained per level, duration now scales with base level
Deathgaze: now requires an axe, weapon damage increased, cold damage increased, now converts 50% physical damage to cold
Iceburst: is now a level 12 skill, now requires an axe, fixed an issue with Shellshock debuff, reduced pierce, range is now fixed
Thunder Slam: is now a level 18 skill, now requires an axe, weapon damage increased, bonus damage increased
Shower of Rocks: is now a level 24 skill, weapon damage increased, base mana cost reduced, mana cost increases with skill level

THROW

Bear Claw: greatly increased weapon damage, initial range improved but no longer increases with level, added nominal mana cost
Stampede: greatly increased weapon damage, reworked mechanics and mana cost
Rebound: weapon damage greatly increased, bonus damage increased, mana cost increases with skill level
Screaming Eagle: debuff now also scales with skill level, increased the enemy damage debuff, reduced duration gain per base level
Overkill: weapon damage greatly increased, mana cost increases with skill level

SPIRITS

Guardian Spirit: greatly increased life, damage and attack rating, reworked mana cost
Defender Spirit: greatly increased life, slightly increased damage, now also have 30% physical resistance, reworked mana cost
Protector Spirit: increased life and damage, reworked mana cost
Shamanic Trance: fully reworked skill; replaces Greater Manifestations
Spirit Walk: now costs mana to cast
You may now summon all three spirits at once

SPECIAL

Fortress: damage increased, reduced the range gain from the synergy, mana cost reduced at level 1 but increases with skill level
Spirit Guide: reduced the initial defense bonus, increased the wolf/ancient spirit cuddle radius

STANCE

Lion Stance: reversed the physical resistance penalty progression, starts low and increases with level, increased bonus damage
Snake Stance: increased poison damage, reduced slow target gain per base level
Bear Stance: reduced the initial physical damage and defense bonuses at level 1, bonus defense scaling with skill level increased
Eagle Stance: now reduces Attack Rate instead of Enhanced Weapon Damage, health regeneration slightly reduced
Wolf Stance: increased the crushing blow gain per base level

REWARD

Nephalem Spirit: is now an untargetable spirit with an aura. Bonus damage increased; replaces Nephalem Weapons
Gladiator's Dominance: new skill which improves your combat prowess and also adds damage to all Barbarian ranged skills

Druid

GENERAL

Fixed a bug that would unmorph druid upon death, instead of killing it

TREEWARDEN

Treewarden Form: the maximum life bonus has been increased
Thorn Strike: new melee skill which hits multiple times, adds bonus physical damage and can target ground; replaces Pummel
Wildfire: damage and mana cost increased, now always uses the fastest attack animation
Idol of Scosglen: reduced base cooldown

TRAP RAT

Trap Rat Form: removed the maximum life bonus, increased the bonus defense scaling
Egg Trap: damage increased
Thorn Wall: damage increased

WEREWOLF

Harbinger: cooldown reworked, now starts lower but still take 10 base levels to reduce to zero
Twisted Claw: weapon damage greatly increased, cold damage increased, mana cost increased

SEER

Elemental: slightly increased damage and mana cost
Hunting Banshee: damage and mana cost increased, wraiths will now track down their target faster
Rain of Fire: slightly reduced area of effect and duration
Freezing Gale: damage and mana cost greatly increased

VENOM

Poison Flash: reduced damage at early levels and increased at later levels, now gains bonus damage from strength and not energy
Elvensong: greatly increased Elfin Spirit life
Acid Fiends: increased all stats, venomous aura attack rate bonus reduced; maximum number of minions is now 15

BOW

Laughing Ghost: weapon damage increased
Cascade: weapon damage increased, added magic damage increased, seek range per level reduced, targets per level reduced
Spore Shot: weapon damage increased
Nova Shot: weapon damage increased, fire damage increased and now scales with base level, now converts damage to fire

REWARD

Goodberry: recipe now requires a potion, in order to prevent people from accidentally converting rare items
Faerie Fire: increased the duration of the spark trail
Force of Nature: increased bonus elemental damage to weapon
Tremor: reduced damage at higher levels

Necromancer

TOTEM

Death's Fury Totem: increased the bonus elemental damage, slightly increased mana cost
Frostclaw Totem: damage reduced
Fireheart Totem: damage reduced
Howling Totem: increased the physical damage bonus and crushing blow scaling per base level
Note: all Necromancer attack totems no longer reanimate Wraith Servants - this change was made for performance reasons

SUPPORT

Embalming: reduced the mana regeneration bonus per skill level
Sacrifices: the number of sacrificial sheep is now fixed, cooldown reduced, mana cost increases with skill level
Bend the Shadows: mana cost significantly lower at level 1 but now increases with skill level
Bane: mana cost increases with skill level
Talon's Hold: greatly improved the life, damage and AI of the reanimates. Increased the slow target gain per base level

SUMMON

Skeletal Flayers: graphics overhaul, stats increased; maximum number of minions is now 9; replaces Summon Shadows
Rampagor: life and damage increased; maximum number of minions is now 6
Lamia: life and damage increased, maximum number of minions is now 9
Veil King: life, damage and attack rating increased, physical resistance increased
Void Archon: life and damage increased
Note: all minions which were previously magic immune now have 30% physical resistance instead

MALICE

Funeral Pyre: is now a level 1 skill, damage reduced, initial mana cost greatly reduced
Rotting Flesh: is now a level 6 skill, greatly increased hitbox and damage, contagion now spreads faster
Boneyard: is now a level 12 skill, increased the number of projectiles and increased their hitbox, damage increased
Nightwalker: faster cast rate bonus has been reduced slightly, updated the tooltip to correctly show damage gain per base level
Pestilence: increased area of effect, tripled damage, now gains bonus damage from strength and dexterity, cooldown removed

MELEE

Carnage: a new melee skill which causes a chain of fiery shockwaves when you attack and hits multiple times; replaces Massacre
Parasite: is now a level 6 skill, now gains one extra target per base level, mana cost increases with skill level
Angel of Death: is now a level 18 skill, improved damage formula and targeting accuracy, mana cost increases with level

CROSSBOW

Flametail Shot: is now a level 1 skill, reworked mechanics, damage greatly increased, added attack rating bonus
Death Shards: is now a level 6 skill, damage increased, number of bolts reworked; replaces Buckshot
Fragmentation Shot: damage greatly increased, mana cost increased
Voodoo Shot: renamed to Widowmaker, as is tradition

REWARD

Graveyard: now gains an additional projectile every 8 base levels, damage reduced
Black Mass: increased the life on attack amount
Death Ward: greatly increased the amount of bonus defense
Rathma's Chosen: slightly increased the amount of bonus magic damage to chosen minion

Paladin

HONOR

Retaliate: weapon damage increased, bonus magic damage increased, mana cost increases with skill level
Divine Judgment: a new powerful multi-hitting single target attack which converts damage; replaces Hammerstrike
Plague: duration reduced, poison damage progression reworked and greatly improved
Dragonheart: reduced the amount of bonus defense gained per skill level, physical damage bonus per base level greatly increased
Colosseum: base cooldown reduced in half, velocity debuff reduced, bonus fire damage increased, mana progression reworked

LIGHT

Vessel of Retribution: reworked damage and attack speed, seek range and amount of targets
Solstice and Equinox: now grants an additional target every two skill levels
Sacred Armor: greatly increased mana cost
Hoplite: reduced chance to avoid damage and slightly reduced physical resistance, damage and attack rating increased

DRAGON

Solar Flare: mana cost greatly reduced, duration increased to 6 seconds
Drakemaw: damage greatly increased, mana cost increased slightly
Frozen Breath: damage increased, freeze duration gain per skill level reduced
Incarnation: slightly increased the spell damage bonus, slightly reduced the initial life leech amount
Dragon Wyrms: halved the growth in hydra numbers, their damage has been tripled, mana cost slightly increased

DEMON

Terror Strike: slightly reduced the amount of bonus defense gained per base level, modified black sleep damage synergy
Lemures: skill has been reworked, its damage has been increased, mana cost has been slightly increased
Blood Thorns: mana cost slightly increased
Hymn: slightly reduced the base level synergy bonus

SHADOW

Vessel of Justice: reworked damage and attack speed, seek range and amount of targets
Life and Death: now grants an additional target every five skill levels
Demiurge: cooldown greatly reduced, improved the life and AI of the Seraphim reanimates, mana cost increased
Scourge: increased life, damage and attack rating; maximum number of minions is now 15

WICKED

Tainted Blood: slightly reduced poison resistance bonus per skill level and healing rate
Mind Flay: greatly increased damage at lower levels, endgame damage slightly reduced
Symphony of Destruction: reduced damage at lower levels, increased it at higher levels
Slayer: slightly increased damage and mana cost
Stormlord: slightly reduced the base level synergy bonus

REWARD

Divine Apparition: mana cost greatly increased
Superbeast: duration increased, now requires more cast speed/attack speed for best fpa, spell damage bonus reduced
Dragonform: duration increased
Resurrect: greatly increased the damage and health of the revived Revenants; maximum number of minions is now 3

Sorceress

FIRE

Flamefront: damage increased
Living Flame: bonus maximum life and life regeneration improved
Flamestrike: damage slightly decreased, mana cost reduced at level 1
Pyroblast: tweaked visuals, damage increased at lower levels
Firedance: greatly increased weapon and spell damage boost, initial radius increased but no longer expands with skill level

LIGHTNING

Forked Lightning: damage greatly increased, mana cost slightly increased
Thunderstone: reduced the number of charged bolts per explosion
Tempest: reduced the number of bolts per cast
Nova Charge: greatly increased damage, duration gain per skill level reduced, now gains bonus damage from Dexterity and Energy

COLD

Frigid Sphere: is now a level 1 skill, damage and mana cost have been increased
Shatter the Flesh: is now a level 6 skill, damage at lower levels slightly increased
Ice Queen: slightly reduced the maximum life bonus
Abyss: damage reduced
Ice Elementals: all stats increased, reduced frost armor aura damage reduction; maximum number of minions is now 15

POISON

Lorenado: slightly increased damage and mana cost
Vengeful Power: increased the bonus to Damage Reduction
Miasma: damage greatly reduced, haunt effectiveness and base duration improved
Arachnomancy: reduced poison effect duration, greatly increased damage, increased mana cost; replaced Carpet of Spiders
Hive: damage increased, duration gain per skill level reduced, now gains bonus damage from Dexterity and Energy

ARCANE

Immersion: slightly reduced damage at level 1, damage at higher levels greatly increased, mana cost slightly increased
Familiar: damage increased, now displays the current Energy damage bonus to its attacks on the tooltip
Arcane Torrent: damage increased, mana synergy cap raised, mana cost slightly increased
Mana Sweep: increased damage growth after level 1, slightly reduced the amount of mana restored per hit
Antimass: cooldown reduced

MELEE

Wraithsword: weapon damage greatly increased
Fusillade: damage slightly reduced, minimum target seek range increased, base duration increased, cooldown reduced at all levels
Blade Spirits: life, damage and attack rating improved; maximum number of minions is now 9
Bladestorm: weapon damage increased, magic damage increased, now converts less damage to physical, mana cost reduced

REWARD

Symbol of Esu: increased initial restoration amount but reduced restoration gain per skill level, now only restores life
Force Blast: increased the debuff to enemy weapon damage
Witch Blood: slightly increased the spell damage bonus
Baneblade: increased weapon physical damage gain, greatly increased the life on attack, added a large amount of Faster Block Rate
Chronofield: increased the amount of velocity slow at lower levels, now also reduces enemy physical resistance per base level

oSkills

All oskills now have their own icon
Psionic Storm: reworked skill mechanics
Punisher: removed timer on skill description
Pagan Heart: removed
Bloody Mary: removed
Harvest: replaced with Spin to Win
Dance Macabre: replaced with Spin to Win
Tantrum: decreased duration and increased mana cost
ATMG Sentry: decreased duration and increased mana cost
Teleport: cooldown increased to 3 seconds
Elfin Arrows: now scales with level and gives same stats as druid skill
Ice Bolt Nova: reduced massive range
SMG: reduced range
Devouring Cloud: improved graphics
Warband Throw: reduced amount of barbarians spawned
Wyrd: can now be used on left mouse button

Items

GENERAL

Repair cost of items has been decreased
Increased damage of tier 1 and tier 2 weapons

UNIQUES

Naiad King (1): fixed level requirement
Vizharan: removed Dragonheart charges
Crystalline Flame Medallion: removed apocalypse proc, moved +1 All Skills to Xazax's reward
Idol of Vanity: now received +1 to Maximum Skill Levels from Spirit of Damnation, instead of spiral proc
Steel Terror: replaced respawner proc with dark summoning

SETS

Tribute Sets: modified names to not contain real-life references
Imperius' Edict: modified full set bonuses, fixed blue string glitch
Elemental Children: modified full set bonuses
Adria's Circle: modified full set bonuses
Malthael's Sanctuary: modified full set bonuses
Lone Wolf's Path: modified full set bonuses
Rainbow Warrior: modified full set bonuses
Rathma's Empire: modified full set bonuses
Curse of the Zakarum: modified full set bonuses

RUNEWORDS

Gemwords: removed
Hive (xis): now has 100% uninterruptable attack, instead of 110%
Shark (xis): slightly reduced stats
Kabbalah: fixed level requirement
Chthon: reduced level of Tremor proc
Nero: reduced Path of Flames oskill level
Kronos: reduced Chronofield oskill level

OTHER

Belladonna Extract: can no longer be crafted, can randomly drop from any level 85+ monster
Kabraxis' Stone: now requires level 121
Book of Summoning: now drops from The Summoner on Terror difficulty
Catalyst of Disenchantment: now drops from The Smith on Hatred difficulty
Catalyst of Destruction: now drops from Hephasto the Armorer on Hatred difficulty
Catalyst of Learning: now drops from Izual on Terror difficulty
Special Box: removed
Pearls of Wisdom: removed
Secret Emblems: renamed from Secret Tokens, are now a rare world drop
Mark of Infusion: new item used to create honorifics, dropped by Shenk on all difficulties
Median Statue: is now useless again as it was always meant to be
Elixir of Greater Experience: now adds 150% experience gained over 60 seconds
Elixir of Greater Greed: now gives 250% magic find over 60 seconds
Elixir of Power: now gives +5 to all skills over 60 seconds
Elixir of Love: now reduces vendor price by 50% for 60 seconds
Book of Cain: renamed from Book of Ultimative, modified stats when cubing with Book of Median
Triune Trophy: can now be cubed with The Sleep
Rainbow Stones: now increase %gold find instead of adding crafting points
Sur Rune: now adds mana regeneration, instead of crafting points
Auhe Rune: now adds deadly strike, instead of mana regeneration
Portable Shrines: improved name formatting
Arcane Shards: improved name formatting
Unknown Skull: renamed to Runestone, changed visuals
Unknown Skull 2: removed
Elemental Stones: are now essences, changed visuals
Apples: reduced sell price
Dogmas: standarized graphics because the colored versions looked ugly

Cube Recipes

SHRINECRAFTING

Shrines will now grant all of their bonuses
Shrines will no longer work with set and unique items
Hidden shrines will now grant 1% + 2% reanimates, instead of 1% + 2% + 2%
Removed -%mana affixes on elemental crafts

MYSTIC ORBS

Useless unique mystic orbs (read: nearly all) have been massively buffed
Many mystic orb stats have been reworked and/or replaced
Removed recipe to cube 3 Unique Mystic Orbs into a new one
All mystic orbs have now doubled bonuses (including level requirement) to speed up orbing
Regular mystic orbs can now be cubed up to 5 times

OTHER RECIPES

All cube reagents now have a consistent and pretty description, listing possible recipes
Oil of Renewal: can no longer be used to reroll rare items
Oil of Enhancement: can no longer be used to upgrade magic items to rare, no longer requires a rune to upgrade to magic
Book of Summoning: can no longer be cubed with the Book of Lies
Chaos Reroll: removed
Act Boss Dogmas: recipes now require only one of each dogma
Quest Shortcuts: re-added recipes to create Horadric Staff and Khalim's Will
ZOMG: removed
New Recipe: rare item + rare ring + rare amulet = reroll rare item with ilvl of 1
Black Road Challenge: completion recipe now requires two arcane crystals, instead of 4 hearts
Sacred Unique Reroll: no longer requires oils

Vendors - NPCs

Gheed: will now reveal act 1 map for free
Atma: will now reveal act 2 map for free
Meshif: will now reveal act 3 map for free
Jamella: will now reveal act 4 map for free
Malah: will now reveal act 5 map for free
Gambling: rings and amulets can no longer be gambled
Catalysts: no longer sold by vendors
Runes: reduced sell price to prevent easy gold when socketing on stackable items
Jewelry: increased sell cost to compensate for above change
Mystic Orbs: modified which vendors will sell them, increased price to prevent early game orb abuse
Oils: modified which vendors sell them, consistent with mystic orbs
Oil of Absolution: removed
Meditation Candle: removed
Sacrifical Heart: removed

Rare Affix Pool

These stats can spawn on magic, rare and crafted items

Added new oskills to the pool [+]
Funeral Pyre: Knives
Ice Bolt Nova: Orbs
Cataclysm: Necromancer Staves
Orb of Annihilation: Wands
Terror Strike + Blood Throns: Necromancer Knives
Tempest: Druid Staves
Thunder Slam: Druid Helms
Pestilence: Paladin Spears
Lorenado: Paladin Helms
Vessel of Retribution: Sorceress Warp Blades
Balefire: Special Helms, Barbarian Helms
Colosseum: Barbarian Swords
Bear Stance: Naginatas
Barrage: Druid Bows
Psionic Storm: Scepters
Thunderstone: Amazon Shields
Graveyard: Amazon Spears
Rock Shock: Rings
Wyrd: Rings
Stormcall: Paladin Shields
Added new procs to the pool [+]
Flamefront: on striking - All Melee Weapons
Spiral Dance: on attack - All Melee Weapons
Elemental: on kill - All Weapons
Javelin: on striking - Javelins
Deathstrike: on kill - Throwing Knives & Throwing Axes
Bladestorm: on attack - 1h Swords
Thunderwave: on attack - Maces
Widowmaker: on kill - Crossbows
Cryo Beam: on striking - Arrow Quivers & Bolt Quivers
Bear Claw: on striking - Arrow Quivers & Bolt Quivers
Many low quality rolls on stats will now stop spawning on items with level 90 or more
All weapons and armour can now roll a high durability bonus or, rarely, spawn as indestructible
Level requirements of all endgame items adjusted to now perfectly fit with mystic orb level increases
Power of most affixes has been increased
Low impact affixes, which are unwanted by most players will now appear less frequently
Added new top level rolls for many affixes - these spawn infrequently
General shields can now roll +(1-2) to All Skills
Crystal swords can now roll +(1-3) to All Skills, instead of +(1-2) to Sorceress Skills
Orbs and Wands may now spawn with significantly more FCR than Staves
Orbs, wands and crystal swords may now spawn with significantly more energy factor bonus
1h caster weapons may now spawn with significantly more spell damage
Special shields (bone and spiked) may now spawn with spell damage
Non-class shields may now rarely spawn with +2% block
Slightly reduced the amount of dexterity that spawns on affixes
Slightly increased the amount of strength that spawns on affixes
General shields may now spawn with damage reduced by X%
Lightning spell damage and pierce will now spawn on amazon class items
Improved minion damage affixes for both leveling and endgame
Reworked identity of elemental damage affixes as follows:
Cold damage: lowest average damage, lowest variance (lower is better), slows enemies
Fire damage: higher average damage, higher variance, no slow
Lightning damage: even higher average damage, even higher variance, no slow
Poison damage: duration shortened, highest average damage by far in order to compensate for lack of multihit

Item Drops

Rare Items: will now drop more frequently
Mystic Orbs: non-unique orbs no longer drop from monsters
Unique Mystic Orbs: now only drop from level 85+ monsters
Shrines: rebalanced drop rates across the game
Heroic Levels: reduced rare items drop chance
Khalimgrad: reduced rare items drop chance

Other

Removed 8kb size limit on character files
Fixed 32k+ health and mana display overflows
Characters will now join other TCP/IP up to 8 times as fast
Restored the speeches used by the characters when creating a new hero
New splash/menu background
Changed min-max caps on several item stats
Removed several unused stats, which will allow new stats to be implemented in future patches
Items on ground will no longer be equiped automatically. This will get rid of people accidentally losing their entire gear
Mercenaries: Stats of mercenaries have been reworked
Crafting Points: removed
The Sin War: removed "account locked" notice when writing wrong password. No longer requires running a .reg file to join
Crystal Ball: fixed FPBE string
Venomous Aura: doubled effect stat now properly works
Acid Trance: fixed aura effect on items that had it

Multiplayer - Season 14

These changes apply to multiplayer realm only!
Added three new gameservers in Los Angeles, Seattle and New York
Secret uniques, runewords and sets
Cornerstone of the World can drop with uber skills, oskills and monster skills
Rebalanced drop rates

Median XL 2017

- Patch 1.0b -

General

UBERQUESTS

Kabraxis: removed Bone Prison due to it causing desync issues on realm. Boss now has increased life and casts Chronofield instead
Aldric Jitan: removed Inner Fire, now uses Pestilence instead, greatly increased life
Tran Athulua: reduced the density and the damage of the Priestesses on Hatred Difficulty
Lucion: modified sprite to solve crashes, changed shield aura graphics
Athulua: reduced stats on Hatred Difficulty

MONSTERS

Ghost Phoenix: reduced damage on Hatred Difficulty
Corruptor Warlocks: reduced damage on Hatred Difficulty
Blood Princes: modified on-death proc to reduce lag

SKILLS

Mind Flay: now gets an extra beam for every 9 Slayer Base Levels
Spirit Walk: reduced base cooldown by 2 seconds

ITEMS

Catalyst of Destruction: removed destruction recipe
Affix Burn: recipe will now return superior items instead of low quality
Gems: chipped and flawed gems no longer drop
Runes: increased the pool of runes on Hatred Difficulty, allowing runes up to Um to drop from regular monsters
Jewelry: reduced jewel sell gold due to cheesing, increased the sell cost of amulets and rings
Khany: the runeword now spawns with Stormblast instead of Thunder Slam

BUGFIXES

Fixed a bug where Deathgaze axes were doing no damage
Fixed a tooltip issue with Screaming Eagle
Diablo will now always drop the Scroll of Athulua on Hatred Difficulty
Fixed a bug that caused Soul of Wrath not to lose any health
Fixed a few bugs with items granting the wrong oSkills
Fixed the icons of Static Lance and Bloodlust
Fixed the descriptions of the Thunder Bear, Blade Spirits and Phalanx skills
Fixed an issue with BRC where the scrolls were given out in the wrong order. Improved the clarity of the completion scroll
Fixed an issue where Howling Totem wasn't granting the intended amount of Crushing Blow
Fixed an issue where some Zorun Tzin traps did not have a working aura
Fixed an issue where Bacchanalia was not applying a damage bonus to Bloodwitch spells
Fixed several Necromancer runewords not having the proper stats
Fixed Thunder Slam oskill not working due to weapon requirements
Fixed an issue with Divine Judgement damage delivery