Diablo 3 Patch 1.0.4 Brings Significant Improvements to Skills, Runes, Weapons, Witch Doctors, and Changes to Difficulty

Major changes are coming to Diablo 3 with the upcoming release of patch 1.0.4. The new patch is set to give a colossal boost to every newly found Legendary item in the game and overhaul the magic find system in addition to a whole lot of other things.

The new patch may not yet see the inclusion of Player vs Player mode (which is still planned for release in patch 1.1) but it's still the biggest change that Diablo 3 will have seen to date.

Wyatt Cheng, the game's systems designer posted a rather lengthy blog post containing a preview of the systems they plan to address in the upcoming patch. You can read it in full here for an in-depth explanation as to what they have planned or just scroll down below to read the digested version.

* Magic Find averaging is being removed from cooperative multiplayer games so each individual player's magic find will count towards their own loot drops, independent of other players in the game.

* The monster health multiplier is being lowered for monsters per additional player in co-op games to a flat 75% for all difficulty levels, as opposed to the 75/85/95/110% scaling it is now.

* The health of normal monsters is being increased by 5%-10% in Inferno, but the likelihood for them to drop magic items is increased by 4X. 

* The health of Champion and Rare monsters is being lowered by 10-25% to shrink the difficulty gap. Specific affixes are also being edited to make them less challenging. 

* Fire Chains and Shielding affixes on Champion and Rare monsters are being modified so the difficulty spike they provide isn't as massive. 

* The Invulnerable Minions monster affix is being removed. 

* The damage output of certain monsters like Skull Cleavers is being reduced so they don't instantly kill players.

* Two-handed melee weapons are getting a major boost. Blizzard is creating a new set of stronger affixes to compensate for the loss of stats that come from offhand equipment.

* Skills with text like "Deals 75% weapon damage for 5 seconds" are being changed to more appropriately reflect what they do: e.g. "Deals 750% weapon damage over 5 seconds." The math behind these skills is also being changed so they provide a massive boost for two-handed weapons, and a small buff for one-handers. 

Needless to say that with the new patch, we can expect to see more players equip two handed swords, giant cleavers, and staves. 

* Enrage timers are being removed.

* The repair costs of high-end items are being reduced by 25%.

* Skills will be polished to provide more usability in higher difficulty levels. Bola Shot, for example, will be buffed so it is competitive with Hungering Arrow.

* Underused runes, such as every other rune for the Wizard's Hydra skill with the exception of the Venom Hydra, will be buffed.

* Damage-oriented resource skills will be buffed.

* Witch Doctor skills in particular will be getting significant improvements in 1.0.4, including Zombie Dogs and Gargantuan.