Diablo III getting PvP in patch 1.0.7

Player versus Player (PVP) is finally making its way to Diablo 3. Blizzard has updated the Diablo 3 blog with a post that details some of the new changes that will be included in patch 1.0.7, which will first be making its way to the Public Test Realm (PTR) for testing. Changes in the new patch include the addition of Dueling, some class updates, additions to the crafting system, changes to the Monster Power system, changes to monster affixes and other general quality of life improvements.

The biggest thing, as you can see, is the addition of dueling. To duel another player, you need to talk to an NPC named Nek the Brawler at the inn in New Tristram. Speaking to him will take you and your party to the Scorched Chapel—a new zone designed specifically for PVP. The zone has custom geometry and features four areas: the church, the graveyard, the river and the lake. At the moment, dueling supports up to four players in a Free-For-All format, which means that you can battle with people either one-on-one, three player Free-For-All or full four-player Free-For-All.

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The new zone was created so that players don’t get griefed by other players when they’re not looking to duel. At the moment, the game doesn’t keep any score, and there are no objectives_. “We wanted dueling to be as simple and straightforward as possible, so we created a minimalist system – we know that even without rewards and objectives, some players just want to beat each other up,”_ says the blog post.

For class balance, Blizzard has focused on improving the Wizard and the Monk in this patch. The Wizard is seeing a buff to some of its spells, such as Arcane Orb, Blizzard and Shock Pulse. There are also some small changes, like allowing Illusionist to reset the cooldown of Slow Time and increasing the slow effect of Temporal Flux from 30 percent for 2 seconds to 60 percent for 3 seconds.

The Monk is also getting some buffs, especially to spells that spend its Spirit. This was mostly done to offer players some alternatives when they have excess Spirit in a fight. A typical Monk keeps casting Mantra of Conviction with Overawe for a 3 second bonus to spend excess spirit. “While this is totally legitimate, we want to provide alternate uses for your extra Spirit. As a result, we are greatly buffing all the damage-dealing Spirit Spenders to try and provide an alternate use for your Spirit.”

There have been some improvements to the item hunting side of the game, too, with the inclusion of new crafting recipes. The new recipes are a set of rare recipes that will create account-bound gloves, pants, wrists, a chest piece and an amulet. The new items are set to have six affixes, and will have a primary stat that extends higher than what is currently available in the respective slots. The crafting recipes also require a new crafting reagent called Demonic Essence, which drops from Elite monsters in the Inferno difficulty. The Archon Armour recipe—the chest piece—can be purchased from an NPC and other plans will drop randomly in the world. There is a 50 percent chance of the recipes dropping from Skeleton King, Spider Queen, Maghda, Zoltun Kulle, Ghom, Cydaea, Rakanoth and Izual, if a player has five stacks of Nephalem Valor.

For more information on the patch, check out the Blizzard’s Diablo III Batle.net blog.