Today, Blizzard has been working on pushing out their latest patch, Patch 14. From the patch notes, nothing really jumps out. Players seem most excited about the addition of hardcore mode along with a two-fold increase in damage from monsters. Maybe it will be possible to die in the beta now? Unless the game is a lot harder the hardcore mode seems really silly. Along with this change there are some important changes to the artisans and farming.

The beta patch notes include updates to Blacksmithing. Including an across the board increase in materials needed to craft. We don’t have any context for what this will imply because I’ve long since had all the subtle essence I’ve ever needed to craft whatever we want. They are also doubling the cost to level your Blacksmith artisan, which is still probably not enough to make this difficult come release. It will also cost less to craft items at your Blacksmith, another odd change I’m looking forward to get some insight on. It used to cost 100g and if you weren’t selling your crafting materials you could actually run out of gold before you ran out of materials.

There is also mention of them changing “gold drops” and “item sale values.” As soon as I can get into the game I will test out new gold per minute rates to see what exactly they changed. These changes could mean a lot of things. If Blizzard adjusts the base amount of gold that drops from monsters it can have a dramatic impact on the price of equivalent items, hell it will change the price structure of the entire economy.

For some reason, Mira Eamon’s loot was adjusted to be ‘better’. As if it wasn’t valuable enough and too easy to farm already? If you haven’t already check out my Mira Eamon Farming guide at Diablo 3 Farming, do check it out. This was among the best ways I could find to farm in Diablo 3 and it sounds like Blizzard may have just made it easier.

I will post more as soon as I can get into the game and test.

Important: Many of the strategies and tips I share here were originally inspired by the people at the Diablo 3 Gold Secrets Forum. If you're serious about making the big bucks in Diablo 3, or just being the best players, you need to signup ASAP.