Diablo III Patch – Demon Hunter’s Smoke Screen, Wizards’ Force Armor & The Boon of Protection nerfed


If you had logged in to Battle.net today, you would have noticed an update for Diablo III (especially if you have not played for a couple of days) and although there aren’t any release notes yet, we can confirm some changes/nerfs that occured via this latest update. Word has it that Blizzard wants to get a list of all hotfix changes up in the next 24 hours, but who wants to wait until then, right?
So, Demon Hunter players, get ready because your Smoke Screen skill has been nerfed. The standard time you’re invisible is now 1 second (2 with Lingering Fog rune) and there’s also a 3 second cooldown. We’re pretty sure that you are unhappy with that change and frankly, this is taking it a bit too far. Only 1 second for such a skill? Come on Blizzard.
On the other hand, ‘The Boon of Protection’ rune was nerfed and and its amount of damage absorbed is now capped at the amount of healing provided by Mantra of Healing in the first 3 seconds after activation. According to Blizzard, this rune was approximately ten times over its budget on the benefits it provided, and it was quite simply a mistake on our part to let the rune ship as it was.
The Force Armor rune of Wizards is not working at the moment. According to various reports, this rune was nerfed and will be removed. This could very well be a bug though, as its icon is still present in the game. So stay tuned Wizards for more.
Mobs in Act I & II have had their HP cut roughly by 50%, players can no longer equip a 2 handed weapon whilst having another weapon/off hand equipped, and resplendent chest farming bug/exploit has been fixed.