According to a recent announcement from Diablo 3 community manager Tyvalir, the most recent installment in Blizzard's action role-playing game franchise is set to offer double XP this weekend as a means to apologize to fans who waited patiently during the delays encountered in the implementation of Patch 2.6.0's hotfixes last Friday. Furthermore, the publisher and developer is also making the event available in order to make amends with those affected by a Legendary Gem exploit, as there were some players who took advantage of the bug to increase their Gem count to over 140.

Since certain Diablo 3 fans who decided to not use the exploit feel like they’re now at a permanent disadvantage, the game's upcoming double XP weekend, which starts this Friday, July 14, at 5:00 PM PT and ends on Monday, July 17, at 10:00 AM PT, should allow them to level the playing field. Of course, this will be a rare opportunity for players to gain experience points faster than usual, as Tyvalir explained, "Although we generally don’t provide such buffs (in order to discourage people from only playing when a buff is active), we feel like the unusual circumstances, in this case, warrant an exception."

While some Diablo 3 players might assert that those who took advantage of the Legendary Gem exploit deserve punishments in some shape or form, it looks as if Blizzard is taking a different approach to fixing the problem stemming from the buggy interaction between the Frailty ability of the Necromancer and the Grim Reaper Rune from the Demon Hunter ability Marked for Death. As it so happens, non-seasonal characters are having their Gems rolled back to normally achievable levels at the moment, but considering the publisher and developer's track record with moderating its games' communities, Blizzard could eventually dish out some type of penalties to those who used the exploit. However, Tyvalir offered no word on that occurring at this point.

"We will be rolling back Legendary Gem levels to the maximum gem level that would have been legitimately achievable prior to the patch going live. As with all previous exploits, any additional actions we may take will not be discussed outside of our staff and offending individuals."

All things considered, the double XP weekend may not be exactly what the fans affected by the Legendary Gem exploit want, as most of the non-cheating users have expressed that the right thing to do is ban those who took advantage of the situation. Nevertheless, it's the only solution Blizzard is bringing to the table as of now, but like it has previously done with Overwatch, a massive cheat ban could go into effect in the near future.

Diablo 3 is available now for PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.

Source: Battle.net