D2R Patch 3.4 Notes Explained: Every Season 16 Change
Patch 3.4 rebalances 18 uniques, the Isenhart's Armory set and Eternity for Reign of the Warlock on Online Ladder and Offline. Here are the full before-and-after tables, the Season 15 changes reaching Non-Ladder, and the bug fixes in plain English.
Patch 3.4 arrives with Season 16 and rebalances 18 unique items, the Isenhart's Armory set and the Eternity runeword. The item changes apply to Reign of the Warlock (RotW) on Online Ladder and Offline only. Online Non-Ladder, Classic and Lord of Destruction keep the old stats.
Everything below comes from Blizzard's Season 16 announcement. Season 16 has not launched, so any opinion on strength is a prediction, not a result from play. The notes also do not say what happens to copies of these items that already exist, and we will not guess.
Patch 3.4 Dates and Scope
Season 15 ends Monday, Nov 9 at 11 AM PST and the patch starts rolling out that day. Season 16 opens Friday, Nov 13 at 5 PM PST, and our Season 16 start date guide has the time for every region.
Two season-end rules arrive with it. When Season 15 ends, items in the ladder Shared Stash move to Withdraw Only tabs, and anything from Season 14 still in those tabs is lost at that moment. Separately, from Nov 16, Expansion (LoD) Online characters can no longer be converted to Reign of the Warlock, though Offline characters still can.
The Season 15 item changes, already live on Online Ladder, reach Online Non-Ladder in Season 16. That covers Angelic Raiment, Bane Ash, Blinkbat's Form, Bloodletter, Gravenspine, Manald Heal, Pluckeye, Rogue's Bow, The Battlebranch and The Ward, and the details are in Blizzard's Season 15 notes. Non-Ladder gets those and none of the Patch 3.4 tables below.
Abbreviations: ED is Enhanced Damage, IAS is Increased Attack Speed, FCR is Faster Cast Rate, FRW is Faster Run/Walk, FHR is Faster Hit Recovery, AR is Attack Rating and MF is Magic Find.
Season 16 Patch Notes: Leveling-Range Uniques
These ten sit at required level 36 or lower, ordered by the required levels on each item's page. The Atlantean's drop to level 35 puts it just ahead of Coldkill.
| Item | Changes |
|---|
| Dimoak's Hew | +100% ED → +100-150% ED. +15 Dexterity → +20 Strength |
| Serpent Lord | Added +15% IAS. +30-40% ED → +40-80% ED. Added +5 Minimum Damage |
| Griswold's Edge | Knockback → 4% chance to cast level 1 Amplify Damage on striking. +80-120% ED → +100-160% ED. Added Slows Target By 25% |
| The Salamander | Added +10% FCR. +2 To Fire Skills → +3. +2 To Fire Ball → +4 |
| The Tannr Gorerod | +80-100% ED → +200-220% ED. Added 5-9% Life Stolen Per Hit |
| Silks of the Victor | Added +20% FRW, +30% IAS, +50-100% ED and +15% MF |
| The Grim Reaper | +20% ED → +80-120% ED. 5% Mana Stolen → 5-9% Mana Stolen Per Hit |
| The Impaler | +140-170% ED → +170-240% ED. Added Repairs 1 Durability in 4 Seconds |
| The Atlantean | +200-250% ED → +250-300% ED. Added +2-5 To Zeal (Paladin Only), +100-125 AR and Requirements -20%. Required level 42 → 35 |
| Coldkill | +40 Cold Damage → +80-100 Cold Damage. +150-190% ED → +160-200% ED |
On paper the Tannr Gorerod and the Grim Reaper take the biggest jumps in raw damage, and Silks of the Victor gains the most new lines, four in a single patch. Our leveling unique ranking rates which of these are worth chasing.
Endgame Unique Changes
These eight sit at required level 42 and up, again ordered by required level.
| Item | Changes |
|---|
| Lava Gout | 2% → 5% chance to cast level 10 Enchant on striking. Half Freeze Duration → Cannot Be Frozen |
| Earthshaker | Added +3-5 To Fire Claw (Druid Only) |
| Grim's Burning Dead | Added 15% Reanimate As: Burning Dead Archer. Added +3-5 To Fire Golem (Necromancer Only). +3 → +4 To Necromancer Skill Levels |
| Swordguard | All Res +10-20 → +20-30. Added Replenish Life +10-15. +170-180% ED → +180-230% ED. Added Attacker Takes Damage Of 15-25. +5-495 Defense → +7-779 Defense (Based on Character Level) |
| Demonhorn's Edge | 10% → 20% IAS. Added +1 To Barbarian Skills |
| Veil of Steel | Added +2 To All Skills, Physical Damage Received Reduced by 15-25% and Magic Resist +20-40% |
| Ethereal Edge | +150-180% ED → +220-260% ED. +25% IAS → +40% IAS. Added +2-198 To Maximum Damage (Based on Character Level) |
| Executioner's Justice | +240-290% ED → +260-300% ED. 50% Level 6 Decrepify on kill → 25% Level 13 Amplify Damage on kill. +30% → +40% IAS. Added +15 Life After Each Kill and +5 To Mana After Each Kill |
Veil of Steel and Ethereal Edge look like the loudest entries. Veil gains two skill levels and two defensive lines, and Ethereal Edge gains 70 to 80 points of ED plus 15 IAS. Swordguard gets the longest list of tweaks, from resists and life regeneration to Attacker Takes Damage and a bigger Defense range, and we would wait for real play before calling it good. See the endgame unique ranking for the full opinion.
Isenhart's Armory and the Eternity Rework
Isenhart's Armory changes in four places, plus the full set bonus.
- Full set: +20% FRW → +30% FRW. Added +25% FHR (Faster Hit Recovery).
- Lightbrand: +20% → +40% IAS. Added +5-495 AR (Based on Character Level). The 2-piece AR bonus is gone, replaced by a 3-piece bonus of +2-198 To Maximum Damage (Based on Character Level).
- Parry: added 2-piece Cold Resist +15% and 2-piece Fire Resist +15%.
- Case: added Magic Resistance +25%.
- Horns: added 5% Life Stolen Per Hit.
Eternity (Amn Ber Ist Sol Sur, required level 63) got the biggest overhaul in the patch:
- Bases: 5-socket melee weapons → 5-socket melee and missile weapons.
- Added +30% IAS. +260-310% ED → +300-390% ED.
- Added +3-297 To Maximum Damage (Based on Character Level).
- Level 8 Revive (88 Charges) → +5 To Revive, now an O skill.
Two mechanics matter for reading that list. A max-damage line only raises the top of the damage range, so Eternity's +3-297 adds about half its value to average damage, roughly +148 at level 99. And an O skill on a character of another class stays at its listed level, so +All Skills will not raise that Revive there, while a Necromancer's own Revive stacks with it normally. Our Eternity rework breakdown does the damage math on actual bases.
Bug Fixes in Plain English
- Uber Ancient jewels: jewels now drop properly if you kill the last Uber Ancient after being away from the Colossal Summit for a long time.
- Regen and degen: health regeneration and degeneration effects no longer stall because of damage events in online games.
- Warlock demons: a Warlock's bound demon no longer loses its behavior when Inferno is interrupted by traveling through a portal.
- Terror Zone toggle: the online toggle now remembers your previous choice.
- Lobby: searched games now appear even when hidden by the scroll list, and Auto-Party Invite now actually puts players into games.
- Stash: Advanced Stash items no longer block the Remove Only checkbox.
- Connection errors: they no longer show the wrong "not online in 30 days" message.
- Stability: assorted freezes and crashes are fixed.
The lobby fixes are the ones we expect most players to notice on launch night, when everyone is searching for games at once.
FAQ
Does Patch 3.4 change Online Non-Ladder?
Not the item changes. They apply to RotW Online Ladder and Offline. Non-Ladder gets the Season 15 item changes in Season 16, and Eternity stays on its old version there.
Did Patch 3.4 change any class skills?
Not in Blizzard's notes. The changes are to items, plus the bug fixes, and one of those touches the Warlock's Inferno and bound demon behavior.
When does Patch 3.4 go live?
It starts rolling out on Monday, Nov 9, the same day Season 15 ends at 11 AM PST. Season 16 itself begins Friday, Nov 13 at 5 PM PST.
Look Up the Gear, Then Find a Team
Plug the buffed items into your farming plans with the drop calculator. If you would rather test them with a group, create an account and browse the teams recruiting on our community RotW ladder. It runs separately from Blizzard's own leaderboard.