14 DAY TRIAL // The Public Test Realm version of Diablo 3 patch 2.1.0 has just been updated with a lot of brand new tweaks, enhancements, and changes to some of the new mechanics, like Greater Rifts, but also some of the existing ones, in the form of certain class abilities.
Diablo 3 update 2.1.0 is set to bring forth a wide array of brand new features to the role-playing dungeon crawler, such as Seasons, Greater Rifts, and sweeping changes to the many classes in the popular title.
However, before it unleashes all these changes to the world, developer Blizzard decided to roll it out onto the Diablo 3 Public Test Realm, where players who want to try out the update can do so and then share their feedback with the studio.
After a few weeks of PTR availability, Blizzard has now issued an update for patch 2.1.0, taking its build to 2.1.99.25390.
The new version is already live on the Diablo 3 PTR and brings quite a few changes, including an adjustment for the difficulty curve in Greater Rifts, according to the official website.
Certain items like the Depth Diggers, the Madstone, or Ramaladni's Gift have also been tweaked in order to avoid exploits.
The user interface of the game has been improved to show Greater Rifts in action, displaying a unique icon when a Greater Rift is open and when a player is inside one. The completion times for these new challenges will now always be broadcasted via your chat window.
Other bug fixes relating to Greater Rifts include ones where players weren't able to change the difficulty after a rift was completed, as well as one that made monsters give out more experience than intended. Pets should also gain bonuses depending on the difficulty in a correct manner, while legendary gems can be upgraded in the Stash.
A few other tweaks have been made to mechanics like the Life on Hit attribute, but also to skills and runes for classes like the Barbarian, Demon Hunter, Monk, Witch Doctor, or Wizard.
The updated version of the game also enables legendary gems that can only be dropped by Greater Rift Guardians. These are account-bound and can only be socketed into rings and amulets. There is, however, a known issue that allows some of them to be socketed into other types of gear, but Blizzard is aware of it. These gems can be updated only by talking to a new NPC called Urshi inside a Greater Rift after the timer ends.
Quite a few other tweaks are included in the latest PTR build of Diablo 3 patch 2.1.0 and you can expect more changes to be made until Blizzard is satisfied with the update and releases it worldwide.