Diablo 3 Patch Adds Dynamic Difficulty Scaling

Diablo 3 patch 2.0.1 is now live in the Americas and brings a huge number of changes to the game but perhaps the most significant alterations have been made to the game's difficulty. 

The game now scales difficulty with enemies leveling up alongside your character and there are now five difficulty levels to choose from which are; Normal, Hard, Expert, Master, and Torment.

Normal, Hard, and Expert are all available from the beginning while Master unlocks after Act IV and Torment once you've reached level 60. Torment adds a difficulty slider, bringing an additional six adjustments for more powerful enemies and better rewards.

You can now lower your difficulty level in-game but raising the difficulty level still requires you to exit your current game and this option is disabled in hardcore mode. 

Another significant change is the removal of Nightmare, Hell, and Inferno modes. Other additions include Pools of Reflection which add 25% bonus to experience, followers automatically level with characters, and gold can no longer be traded. 

Blizzard says of the patch: 

"Please note that you will not be prompted to download patch 2.0.1 until the patch is live in your home region. If you are logging in from a European or Asian client, you will need to wait for this patch to release in that region before it can be installed. Additionally, if your home region is in the Americas, you will be unable to log into Europe or Asia using Global Play after patch 2.0.1 is live until those regions have also patched."

For the full list of alterations, check out patch's change log.