14 DAY TRIAL // Blizzard has highlighted some of its aspirations concerning the upcoming Diablo 3 patch 2.1.0, including how the Greater Rifts mechanic is going to help the studio see how each class in the game is performing and whether or not it needs improvements.
Diablo 3 has been around for quite some time both on the PC and Mac platforms but also on consoles like PS3 or Xbox 360, as well as the PS4 and Xbox One, through the recently released Diablo 3: Ultimate Evil Edition.
Currently, developer Blizzard is putting the finishing touches on the long-awaited update 2.1.0 for the game, which is set to introduce a lot of new mechanics, systems, and more to the role-playing dungeon crawler.
While talking with fans on the Battle.net forums, one of the studio's Community Managers explained that the Greater Rifts are important not just because they deliver fresh adventures and challenges to players, but also through the fact that they can be a great metric used to measure how good classes are right now in the game.
Greater Rifts are tougher and much more intense versions of the regular Nephalem Rifts, introduced by the Diablo 3: Reaper of Souls expansion. They are self-contained mini adventures that take players through different levels based on environments from the story campaign and with all sorts of enemies.
According to the explanation provided by Blizzard's representative, all classes should be on equal grounds and be able to handle their own in the Greater Rifts.
"The implementation of Greater Rifts allows us to rate classes much more quantitatively. Ideally, each class should be within a couple Greater Rift tiers of one another. Our latest internal testing, where we often copy actual characters from players in the PTR and run them through Greater Rifts, shows that we're pretty close. Inevitably, there will always be room for improvement, and now we have clear, tangible data for us to check in on what's going on and re-evaluate."
What's more, it was also explained that recent tweaks made to some classes have been added to ensure that future improvements won't interfere with them or lead to unwanted situations.
"The changes we've made so far to our six classes exemplify these goals. For example, the retuning of Exploding Palm, The Furnace, and Rimeheart weren't specifically made to nerf Monks—it was to remove a clear, standalone issue from interfering with other changes aimed at giving Monks the tools they need to survive and compete in Greater Rifts."
Diablo 3 patch 2.1.0 is expected to appear soon enough, but until then, owners of the game can try it out on the Public Test Realm.
