Diablo III patch 1.03 to spread top loot drops across all Inferno acts

Blizzard hopes to encourage players to fight monsters rather than smash the scenery in their quest for high-level Diablo III gear.

In a blog post on Battle.net, senior technical game designer Wyatt Cheng said player behaviour suggests they feel they need level 63 gear - only avilable in the final acts - to progress beyond Inferno Act I.

As such, many are spending big in the auction house, or ducking in and out of levels to smash pots hoping for rare drops, rather than tackling monsters.

To help overcome this, Blizzard will introduce very rare top-tier equipment drops in all Inferno acts, and up the rate of good drops in Hell. See the link above for more details.

The post goes on to discuss a number of other interesting changes including an increase to repair costs to stop players "graveyard zerging" tough enemies, and tweaks to reduce the importance of attack speed when forming a build.

The difficulty jump between Inferno Act I and II will be bridged slightly, and Blizzard hopes to make co-op more fun by reducing the damage increase per party member.

Plenty more detail in the post. The patch is expected later this month.