Diablo III: Reaper of Souls v2.1.0 Patch Preview
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Calling it "the first major content patch" for Diablo III: Reaper of Souls, Blizzard Entertainment has detailed their plans for patch version 2.1.0, which include the addition of Greater Rifts, a new "cesspools" environment, seasons and leaderboards, and more. Word is:
How Greater Rifts Work:
While Greater Rifts are a type of Nephalem Rift, there are some key differences between the two features. In Greater Rifts:If you complete a Greater Rift before time expires you'll advance to the next difficulty level. Should your time be exceptionally good, you might even skip a few levels! If time instead expires, you'll have reached the end of your current Greater Rift journey and your best results will be posted to the appropriate Leaderboards.
- You'll race against a clock to fill a progress bar by accruing monster kills.
- Most monsters do not drop loot; rewards have been completely shifted to the Rift Guardian.
- This removes conflicting pressure from attaining a better time versus picking up all your loot.
- Monsters grant differing amounts of progress for your progress bar; the tougher the monster, the more they fill up your progress bar.
- You cannot resurrect at your corpse or in town while in a Greater Rift only at the last checkpoint.
- Note that, currently, if you die in a Greater Rift on a Hardcore character, that death will be permanent.
- You cannot use player banners or the Teleport option if the target player is in a Greater Rift.
- Higher Greater Rifts levels are progressively more difficult.
- This difficulty is separate from the standard difficulty settings (Master, Torment I-VI, etc.)
Legendary Gems:
Greater Rifts are truly a challenge, and conquering such challenges should be met with great reward. To provide a unique and upgradable incentive, we're introducing Legendary Gems.
Legendary Gems are still undergoing significant iteration at this time, so you won't see them available on the PTR right away. The gist is that these gems are infinitely upgradeable, and provide special Legendary powers when socketed into the appropriate gear slot. They can only be socketed into Rings and Amulets, and can be upgraded by completing additional Greater Rifts. The higher you place in a Greater Rift, the more likely your gem will be successfully upgraded. We'll have more details in the future as we continue development on these powerful baubles, so stay tuned!
Coming to a Nephalem Rift Near You:
Some of the changes in Greater Rifts are also coming to regular Nephalem Rifts like the way the completion bar will advance based on monster difficulty. In addition, we're slightly modifying the entry mechanism for all Rifts. All players will need to have a Rift Fragment in order to enter a Nephalem Rift; however, we've reduced the cost for entering a Nephalem Rift down to one Rift Fragment per character to compensate.
