Diablo 3 1.04 update to make Legendary items Legendarier with extra abilities

Diablo 3's 1.04 patch is just on the blood-drenched horizon, and it's bringing a host of player feedback-driven changes. Among the most notable of these is a massive overhaul to the stats and graphics of Legendary items. "Soon after we released Diablo III, many of you commented on Legendary items," Blizzard's Andrew Chambers said in a blog post today. "Most of those comments were fairly harsh, but they were also dead-on accurate."

In addition to some pretty huge straight stat buffs, Legendary items are gaining some new, unique abilities that lower-quality items don't have. Most of these seem to revolve around chances to spawn a temporary ally, or giving players access to the same prefixes that can show up on elite mobs. The new Fire Walkers, for instance, will leave a trail of damaging flames behind you as you wade through the demon hordes. Others are focused on buffing specific skills, like the Barbarians' Weapon Throw, that don't see a lot of use in the "standard" builds.

All of this, and more shinies. Blizzard have done a fresh art pass on legendary items and added some shimmering particle effects to make them look more deadly and desirable. Apart from the crossbow that vomits every few seconds. I'm not sure how well that one will do on the auction house. You can get a peek at the art pass and some of the unique abilities in the video below.

Len Hafer is a freelancer and lifelong PC gamer with a specialty in strategy, RPGs, horror, and survival games. A chance encounter with Warcraft 2: Tides of Darkness changed her life forever. Today, her favorites include the grand strategy games from Paradox Interactive like Crusader Kings and Europa Universalis, and thought-provoking, story-rich RPGs like Persona 5 and Disco Elysium. She also loves history, hiking in the mountains of Colorado, and heavy metal music.