The new update should bring more variety, better healing, and happier players

Aug 26, 2014 22:25 GMT  ·  By

Blizzard has shared with fans what it hopes to achieve with the upcoming Diablo 3 update 2.1.0, as it wants to promote better diversity in terms of character builds, an improved healing system, and to make sure that players are having a great time.

Diablo 3 has received a lot of major patches ever since its release on the PC and Mac platforms. While Blizzard has taken some time to release the Reaper of Souls expansion and the Ultimate Evil Edition for consoles (i.e. PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One), it's still determined to further augment the role-playing dungeon crawler.

The new major update, in the form of patch 2.1.0, is set to finally go live later today, August 26, in the Americas region.

Ahead of that release, the studio has shared its main hopes for the upcoming patch, via an official post on Battle.net.

According to the developer, the first two aspirations go hand in hand, as it wants to provide better elemental diversity among the available skills of all classes, while simultaneously improving the skills that have been underused with better runes or more useful effects.

"Provide elemental diversity among a class' available skills –This is an ongoing process, and while we've partially addressed elemental diversity for most classes, there's still more to go (such as addressing Poison and Cold for Demon Hunters and Crusaders respectively)," the studio explained.

"Buff significantly underused skills by increasing numbers or redesigning runes with more interesting or useful mechanics. Channeling spells for Wizards or Furious Charge for Barbarians are great examples of these changes. There's still some skills out there that need work, we just may not get to them for 2.1.0."

The core healing system has also been improved in the new update, as Blizzard really wants players to use healing properties on their gear especially in the more challenging Greater Rifts.

What's more, the studio also wants to ensure that players feel great when going through Diablo 3 no matter their actual class and to play them in all sorts of different ways.

"Ensure that the elemental types and skill mechanics fulfill the fantasy of the class – We talk about class fantasy a lot, and making sure your class feels the way it should. The addition of the Crusader set, Roland’s Legacy, is a prime example of this. Crusaders should feel like they have options in melee, and we feel this set helps satisfy that need."

Diablo 3 patch 2.1.0 is set to launch later today in the Americas server region. Expect the update to appear for Europe and Asia territories in the following days.