With Greater Rifts taking the spotlight in Diablo 3 RoS Patch 2.1 PTR, I guess it's time to weigh in on what I love, hate and absolutely detest about them.
Essentially, Greater Rifts can open up for you when you've finished a normal Nephalem Rift within a certain time limit. When this happens, a Greater Rift portal appears and you can gain access to it if you have a Greater Rift key. Greater Rift keys drop from Rift bosses. Unlike normal Nephalem Rifts, these new dungeons have added difficulty and mechanics.
While I don't have all the details on Rifts in this post, here are some that I love, hate and absolutely detest about Greater Rifts:
What I love about Diablo 3 RoS Greater Rifts:
1. You can get Legendary Gems from the Greater Rifts
Although it isn't implemented yet, Legendary Gems are going to drop in Greater Rifts. This is already a huge incentive to try them out.
2. You get access to a new artisan.
If you go through enough Greater Rifts (you keep finishing Greater Rifts in the time limit and get access to a new one), you can find Urshi when you finally go as far as you can go. This guy can upgrade your gems and even put sockets in Legendary Gems. But at the moment, he just stands there as there aren't any Legendary Gems to upgrade. At least now I don't have to look at Myriam and Shen's annoying little gold and mat cartel all the time.
3. You get new Diablo 3 RoS cred.
Players who go through Greater Rifts the fastest and go the farthest actually get their names on a special leader board. If you're into competition like this on your own time and scale, this is a great mechanic for you.
What I hate about Diablo 3 RoS Greater Rifts:
1. You can't teleport to someone in a Greater Rift.
This means that if you somehow die, disconnected or get left behind by someone in a Greater Rift, you're going to have to wait for that person to open up a portal to town. Opening up a portal can be tricky because it may cause everyone to lose the next Rift since it will take some time. I think that you should at least be able to teleport into a Greater Rift you were in before as long as a party member is still in the Rift.
2. You need a Greater Rift key to get in.
Each player who wants to get in the Greater Rift needs a special key. If you don't have enough keys, you may get left behind. What if the Rift boss doesn't drop a key (out of spite)? It would surely suck to be left behind just because you ran out of keys.
What I absolutely detest about Diablo 3 RoS Greater Rifts:
1. You don't get loot from monsters.
That's right--only the good old annoying Rift boss gets you any loot when you start moving up (or down?) the Greater Rifts. What do you do then? Although this could be seen as a great way for players to be motivated to optimize their kill speed rate, I think this made Greater Rifts one of the least rewarding features of the game.
2. There are almost no clickables in Greater Rifts.
You usually just get the odd weapon rack (probably even a missed hotfix) that yields almost nothing when you're in Greater Rifts. All the rewards are tied up with the Rift Guardian. I wonder how getting nothing on your last Tier would feel on a really bad day...
3. You can't swap gear.
Your sudden gear change to Countess Julia's Cameo or a Blackthorne set as the damage gets really hateful isn't allowed. You can go to town and swap there and jump back into the portal but that just takes some time away from the limit you're running after.
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