Software update: Diablo II 1.13c

Blizzard has released the highly anticipated 1.13c patch for Diablo II. This game appeared on the market over nine years ago, on July 29, 2000 to be exact. The patch brings a host of tweaks and changes; for example, a character’s stats and skills can be reset, so that a new specialization can be chosen. However, this can only be done once, and a certain quest must be completed first. Furthermore, the window mode is better supported with this patch.

With the release of the patch, on March 23, the ladder of the game has been reset: all characters that were on the ladder are now non-ladder characters. Here’s a rundown of everything that changes with the new patch.

A new mystery has been revealed!

• Adventurers of Sanctuary are hereby warned once again, that a new challenge awaits you. Within Diablo’s Bosses, spanning across the world from the ancient Monastery Catacombs to the Throne of Destruction, is where you’ll find what you seek…

Major Bugs

• Fixed an item dupe bug.
• Video improvements for Intel Mac machines with OS 10.5 or greater.
• Fixed an issue where some players could kill other players while in town (“TPPK”).
• Fixed an issue where some players could disconnect other players when they had too many active states.
• Fixed two issues where players could stack auras in an unintended way.

Minor Bugs

• Uber Mephisto now checks for both Uber Baal and Uber Diablo to be killed before spawning summoned minions (Before he would only check for Uber Baal).
• The game will no longer stop and then restart the game music after the window loses and then regains focus.
• Fixed an issue where the game window would minimize when running in windowed mode when it lost focus.
• Fixed an issue where the game window wouldn’t center properly when it was created.
• Fangskin should now properly drop loot in Hell difficulty.
• Fixed an issue where auras were not re-applied to your mercenary after it was resurrected.
• Fixed an issue where if you had two items which provided auras to a mercenary and you unequipped one, the aura from the remaining item never became active.
• Fixed an issue where the Paladin class runeword ‘Principle’ wasn’t having all of its stats applied properly.
• Fixed an issue where the Paladin’s Charge ability would become locked out if Holy Shield faded while charging.
• Fixed an issue where the Barbarian’s Leap ability could become locked out if they were hit when they started to leap.

Specific changes/improvements

• Respecialization is now possible! Completing the ‘Den of Evil’ quest will now additionally reward 1 free respect which can be saved. Players who have already completed this quest should receive 1 free respect in Hell difficulty.
• Increased the drop rate of high runes.
• Support for blit scaling in windowed mode. The game can now be maximized to the largest 4:3 resolution supported (hooray widescreen users).
• Some rare drop items now have an orange color. ie Runes and items required for Uber Tristam.
• Modified the gold bank limit to be a flat cap not bound by level.
• Removed the requirements to create a hardcore character.
• Greatly reduced the explosion damage dealt by Fire Enchanted monsters.
• Uber Mephisto and Uber Baal’s summoned minions no longer give experience.
• Removed Oblivion Knight’s Iron Maiden Curse.
• Hellfire Torch Firestorm proc rate has been reduced to 5%.
• Users can now toggle the display of text over the Health and Mana globes by clicking on the bottom area of ​​each orb.
• When creating a single player game, each difficulty button is now bound to a unique key: Normal ‘R’, Nightmare ‘N’, and Hell ‘H’.
• The ‘Enter Chat’ Button in the battle.net waiting room is now bound to the ‘Enter’ key.
• Added the windows system buttons to the game window (MIN, MAX, CLOSE).
• Added new command line parameter ‘-nofixaspect’ which allows users to not fix the aspect ratio to 4:3 when maximizing in windowed mode. This lets the game ‘stretch’ to fill your monitor.
• Added support for ‘-sndbkg’ command line switch. This enables sound in background.
• Added the following aliases for pre-existing command line options, ‘-nosound’, ‘-window’, and ‘-windowed’.

Revised Skill balance for Player Character classes

• Amazon
  • Immolation Arrow – Increased radius of Explosion effect by 33% and Immolation effect by 50%.
  • Immolation Arrow – Explosion effect damage increased by 20%.
  • Immolation Arrow – Increased base duration by 33%.
• Assassin
  • Drgon Claw – Synergy receives 4% additional damage per point of Claw Mastery.
  • Dragon Talon – The bonus to Attack Rating per point has been increased to 35.
  • Shadow Master – Increased resistance range per point from 5-80 to 5-90.
  • Combo points awarded by combo moves now last 15 seconds, up from 9.
• barbarian
  • Whirlwind – Reduced initial mana cost by 50%.
  • Masteries – Changed critical strike chance from 0-25 to 0-35.
• Paladin
  • Blessed Hammer – No longer ignores resistances of undead and demons.
• Druid
  • Werebear – Damage bonus increased by 15% across all ranks.
  • Werebear – Increased health by 25% and armor by 1% per point.
  • Shockwave – Synergy from Maul adds 5% damage per point.
• necromancer
  • Blood Golem – Removed negative shared life effect (player no longer loses life when the golem takes damage).
  • Corpse Explosion – Increased base damage deals from 60% – 100% to 70% – 120% of corpses health.
  • Poison Nova – Increased base damage by 15%.
• sorceress
  • Firewall – Synergy receives 1% damage per point of Inferno and 4% per point of Warmth.
  • Blaze – Synergy receives 1% damage per point of Firewall and 4% per point of Warmth.
  • Hydra – Increased base damage by 15% per rank.
  • Hydra – Increased base speed or Hydra projectile.
  • Hydra – Reduced cooldown by 25%.