On Wednesday, Blizzard designer Travis Day jumped on Battle.net to inform Diablo III fans that the "anniversary buff" they received last week will be a permanent fixture. Previously, the buff was only meant to last a week as part of Diablo III's second anniversary. Players also received double Rift Fragments.
"I come bearing exciting news," Day writes. "Due to the overwhelming popularity of our Anniversary buff we have decided to keep the increased Legendary drop rate once the Anniversary celebration ends. Once the buff is disabled tomorrow morning, you will find that the new base line drop rates for Legendary items will be the same as those you have all enjoyed for the last week."
Meanwhile, in related Blizzard news, the company updated Battle.net with news that Horde characters on the Barthilas realm wanting to switch teams and play for the Alliance can do so for free – typically, the change costs $30. This will be a trial run for around a week, beginning on Tuesday, May 27.
"We consistently watch queue times for all areas of the game to try to identify problem areas where we can step in and make an improvement,” reads the blog. "Battleground queue times specifically tend to be a direct result of how many people are entering the queue at any given time from both the Horde and Alliance, within an entire region. While a number of factors can lead to longer queue times, faction interest in queuing for PvP tends to be the primary influence. For that reason we're going to be trying something new."
Blizzard indicates that there will be additional World of Warcraft servers offering up the free transfer in the future. However, for right now, it only applies to the previously mentioned Barthilas realm. The company also notes that Faction Change availability may either "be shortened or extended depending on ongoing evaluation during the faction change period."
"We'll be providing updates on availability--as well as if this offer is extended to additional realms--here on the front page, so keep checking back," the blog adds.
