Diablo III Hotfixes Dramatically Increase Drop Rates For High-end Items

It seems that Blizzard Entertainment wasn’t satisfied with the increased drop rates they introduced in Diablo III’s v1.0.3 patch, as the notes for the game’s latest server-side hotfixes alert us to the fact that the drop percentages have been greatly increased across the board for high-end items in the back half of Hell and all of Inferno. In fact, drop rates in Hell Acts III and IV saw a staggering ~60% increase:

June 29

Bug Fixes

• General
  • Fixed a bug that allowed players to temporarily increase their attack speed or double-cast a skill by clicking repeatedly on Town Portal while performing an ability
  • Identifying an item will no longer allow players to circumvent a skill’s attack animation cooldown
  • Fixed some additional (but rare) game crashes
• Auction House
  • Fixed a bug that was causing stacks of commodities in a player’s stash to update incorrectly if the items being sent from the Completed Tab were purchased from multiple different sellers

June 28

Items

• General
  •    The drop rates for high-end items (items level 61-63) have been increased for Acts III and IV of Hell difficulty and Acts I IV of Inferno difficulty
    •   The new approximate drop rates are as follows:
      • Hell Act III and Act IV
        •    iLvl 61: 9% to 13.9%
        •    iLvl 62: 1.9% to 3.45%
        •    iLvl 63: 0% (no change)
      • Inferno Act I
        •    iLvl 61: 17.7% to 23.9%
        •    iLvl 62: 7.9% to 12.6%
        •    iLvl 63: 2.0% to 4.8%
      • Inferno Act II
        •    iLvl 61: 18.6% to 23.3%
        •    iLvl 62: 12.4% to 18.6%
        •    iLvl 63: 4.1% to 9.3%
      • Inferno Act III and Act IV
        •    iLvl 61: 24.1% to 27.1%
        •    iLvl 62: 16.1% to 21.7%
        •    iLvl 63: 8.0% to 16.3%
  • Bug Fixes
    •    Fixed a bug with several items that would allow those items to block pathing when dropped on the ground

  Bosses

  • Bosses are now guaranteed to drop at least 1 Rare item for players with 4 stacks of Nephalem Valor and at least 2 Rare items for players with 5 stacks of Nephalem Valor

  Bug Fixes

  • Fixed a crash that could sometimes occur when a player was interacting with environment objects (e.g. opening chests or clicking on a lectern)