Changes Coming to Greater Rifts
Rift randomness is too high and will be altered in an upcoming patch
Refining the Rifts
Grimiku delved into a discussion about Greater Rifts last week, and returned recently to explain more about how the developers view the Greater Rifts. They do want Greater Rifts to be somewhat random, not completely static dungeons. That includes some features like the Pylon buffs that appear occasionally in Rifts, and the monster density and types. While it sounds that the Pylons will still be around in some fashion, there will be changes to the overall randomness there.
Post by Blizzard (Blue Tracker, Official Forum)
There is some confusion that comes up from time to time about the role that Greater Rifts are intended to play, and I’d like to take a moment to help try and clear that up.
For the most part, Greater Rifts are intended to act like a yardstick (or meter stick, if we’re waxing Metric) by which players can measure the power growth of their hero, as opposed to something that is meant to be completed in its entirety. Part of the confusion about the intended role of Greater Rifts might come from the fact that, during the public test phase of patch 2.1.0, there was a temporary cap in place (for testing purposes), and some players were able to reach that limit while the PTR was running. However, we never intended to allow players to reach the maximum level of what Greater Rifts offer once the system went live. In fact, for all intents and purposes, the number of Greater Rift levels currently has no limit.
For the most part, Greater Rifts are intended to act like a yardstick (or meter stick, if we’re waxing Metric) by which players can measure the power growth of their hero, as opposed to something that is meant to be completed in its entirety. Part of the confusion about the intended role of Greater Rifts might come from the fact that, during the public test phase of patch 2.1.0, there was a temporary cap in place (for testing purposes), and some players were able to reach that limit while the PTR was running. However, we never intended to allow players to reach the maximum level of what Greater Rifts offer once the system went live. In fact, for all intents and purposes, the number of Greater Rift levels currently has no limit.
You need to add "luck" in that statement.
GR is mostly luck.. at a certain level though, if your hero is stronk then yeah, you dont need luck, but the top 10 of a class is, most certainly, luck based GR.
In general, we use randomness in Diablo III to increase the replayability—Greater Rifts included. At the same time, we don’t want Greater Rifts to be so random that it feels like your success is completely at the mercy of a random number generator. Ideally, the randomness within Greater Rifts should keep each Rift level feeling fresh and provide for some unexpected moments of excitement, as well as test how well a player is able to adapt to controlled amounts of unpredictability (i.e. randomness).
At the moment, though, we do feel randomness plays too heavy a role in Greater Rifts, and will be making improvements along those lines. No firm date on this, but just wanted to note that we’re on the same page. Valid feedback, and thanks!
Conduit Pylon a very good measure of power growth, No?
Pylons can be a hell of a lot of fun to encounter in game, and that’s one of the big reasons we added them to Greater Rifts.
That said, we do agree that pylons, at least in their current form, have had negative effect on Greater Rifts for the top end. We'd prefer not to remove pylons from Greater Rifts, since we like the variety they provide, but we also don’t like the current situation where certain classes and builds are able to defeat a Rift level multiple ranks higher than could normally thanks to a single pylon (in this case, a Conduit Pylon). We agree it's a problem and are looking at different solutions, beyond just removing pylons completely.
As with other factors in Greater Rifts—density, monster types, Rift Guardians, etc—finding a good balance between random vs. predictable is something we’re going to continue to iterate and improve upon for Greater Rifts, and that includes pylons too. Ultimately (as I noted in another post), randomness in Greater Rifts should create positive variety and a sense of excitement. We don’t think we’ve nailed that in all areas just yet, particularly when it comes to Conduit Pylons, so we appreciate all the discussion and dialog on this topic in the meantime.
As for what they are intended to be, I am happy with how Greater Rifts work myself. I have found that getting gear upgrades have allowed me to consistently beat ranks I was previously having trouble with, and keep pushing a little further. This has added longevity to the game for me currently.
I will echo the sentiments of many others in stating that empty rifts and long tunnels are not the sort of fun experience I am looking for and I hope you are able to iron out the relevant algorithms and provide a more consistent experience in the future.
It’s certainly our goal to continue to tweak and edit and improve the Greater Rift experience, so thank you for the solid feedback. I’m glad you’re having a great time, though. In addition to beating your own personal best, we also want to make sure the rewards along the way feel worth it. Greater Rifts should be a fun and rewarding activity for all players, even if you aren’t on the leaderboards (or necessarily working your way towards them).
Ultimate Evil Edition Monks Getting Stuck
There is currently a bug under investigation that is affecting Monks in the console Ultimate Evil Edition. It seems that at certain points, a Monk hero can become frozen, often after using Dashing Strike. While this is being investigated by the Blizzard QA team, reports are that using the console dodge roll will break the freeze.
Post by Blizzard (Blue Tracker, Official Forum)
Thanks for the heads up, everyone! We’re currently investigating the issue and will be sure to update the post as soon as more information becomes available.
Short Tuesday Maintenance
There will be a short standard Diablo III server maintenance this week, running Tuesday morning from 1AM to 3AM PDT.
Post by Blizzard (Blue Tracker, Official Forum)
We will be performing maintenance beginning on Tuesday, October 14 at 1:00 AM PDT and we expect it to be complete at approximately 3:00 AM PDT. During this time the game will be available for play but clans will be unavailable.
Thank you for your patience.
Thank you for your patience.
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