Diablo III will get a massive patch for PC releasing today. Blizzard released details pertaining to the upcoming 2.1 patch. This patch is for PC first, though Blizzard has said that the 2.1 Patch is coming to consoles at an unannounced date.
In Seasons Mode, you will have to make a new character and, much like Hardcore mode, once that character dies, it’s gone for good. When you pick the character you will be given a fresh start, no gold and no items. The progress is measured by Greater Rifts, Seasonal Achievements, and Conquest Leaderboards.
Conquests are special achievements for Seasons and they require you to do unique actions exclusive to Seasons Mode. For instance, players can beat the first act in under an hour or get to level 70 to rank up achievements. Conquests are the quickest way to climb the leaderboards. There are two versions of Conquest, one for Hardcore and one for Normal.
Blizzard isn’t too sure yet, but Seasons won’t start until shortly after 2.1 hits and they are expecting each season to last 2-3 months. Later seasons might change the rules due to game balancing and any future patches. When a season ends, any characters you made while playing Seasons will be transferred over to a Non-Season mode. There will also be exclusive legendary items in Seasons Mode, but once a season ends, those items will be transferred into the regular mode.
The Greater Rifts are a new type of rift that will arrive for 2.1 Patch and there are 100 difficulty levels for the new rift. Level 25 will be the same difficulty that is of T6 (Torment Difficulty Level 6 the HARDEST difficulty in the game.) In order to gain access to the Greater Rifts, you will need to get the Keystone of Trials. This will be done by killing a Level 70 Nephalem Rift Guard. Once you do that, the item can be used to open a portal to the Realm of the Trials. This mode will send waves of enemies at you and you have defeat them in a given time limit.The power will depend on the difficulty you opened the rift from.
If you manage to beat the wave, you’ll then gain access to the Greater Rift Keystone. The better you do at that previous wave, the harder the Greatest Rift Keystone will send you. Once you open and enter the Greater Rift, the difficulty will no longer be the difficulty you choose. If you manage to beat a Greater Rift’s Guardian within 15 minutes, you be sent to another level. This will continue until you can no longer beat a wave in 15 minutes.
Every time you beat a Greater Rift Guardian you can summon Urshi, a Nephalem Ghost. After you summon Urshi, you can choose to get a new, higher level Great Rift Keystone, or you can try to upgrade your Legendary Gems. Doing so will end the round, no matter if you beat the timer or not.
If you choose to do both Greater Rift and Realm of the Trials in Hardcore mode, death will be permanent. If you happen to die, your best run will go on the leaderboards where you can compare your friends or strangers best runs. While enemies in Greater Rift won’t drop loot, the Greater Rift Guardians will drop a large amount of items with a high chance of Legendaries. Health and Nephalem Glory Globes will drop though to help you keep fighting.
Leaderboards are exactly as they sound like. They are new leaderboards for the new modes being released in Diablo III’s 2.1 Patch.
Legendary Gems are a new type of gem that can only be used on Rings and Amulets. Each gem has a new effect and can be upgraded to become stronger. After you reach Rank 25 on the gem additional effects can be upgraded.
Most Legendary Gems can be acquired from Greater Rift Guardians. The exception is Boon of the Hoarder. The drop chance is very high with an average between 1 to 2 drops per kill. The items dropped will depend if you own them or not, if you don’t own them they are more likely to drop. Any and all gems start at Rank 0 when they are dropped.
After defeating a Greater Rift Guardian and summing Urshi is the only time you can upgrade the gems. Upgrading a gem will increase the value in blue and once it reaches to Rank 25, it will unlock the second affix.
Depending on the Gem’s current rank and the Greater Rift you are at, the upgrading process won’t always work. It will fail, and you have 3 chances to upgrade a gem, but there will be no negative consequences except losing your three attempts. Here are the following gems available once 2.1 Patch goes live:
- Bane the Powerful
- Bane of the Trapped
- Boon of the Hoarder
- Enforcer
- Gem of Efficacious Toxin
- Gogok of Swiftness
- Invigorating Gemstone
- Mirinae, Teardrop of the Starweaver
- Moratorium
- Pain Enhancer
- Simplicity’s Strength
- Taeguk
- Wreath of Lightning
- Zei’s Stone of Vengeance
Much like every patch Blizzard puts out, there are new items added to Diablo III. The following items are included in the new 2.1 Patch:
SEASONS MODE EXCLUSIVE ITEMS
- Bottomless Potion of Rejuvenation
- Krelm’s Buf Bulwark
- Remorseless
- Frydehr’s Wrath
- Leonine Bow of Hashir
- Vengeful Wind
- Unnamed Ceremonial Dagger
- Unnamed Wand
OTHER NEW ITEMS
These items can be found at any game mode
- Ramaladni’s Gift
- Hellfire Amulet
- Roland’s Legacy
- Unrelenting Phalanx
- Akanesh, the Herald of Righteousness
As well as new items, there are also changes to most items. You can find a complete breakdown of every item that has changed here.
OTHER PATCH NOTES
In the upcoming Diablo III 2.1 Patch, all the characters will be rebalanced. Combat, Barbarian, Crusader, Demon Hunter, Monk, Witch Doctor, and Wizard all have updates to further enhance the characters.
2.1 Patch will also include new zones. One of the new zones is called The Vault. Killing a Treasure Goblin will give you access to The Vault, but if you kill the Goblin in any of the rift modes, The Vault will not open. The Vault is a great way to grind up gold, allowing players to get millions in minutes. If you beat the new boss, it’ll allow you access to her treasure chest which will have even more riches and is likely to contain Boon of the Hoarder Legendary Gem.
The other new zone is called The Cesspools. This will be access through the Greater Rifts.
One last thing is the minor changes Diablo III will issue in at the 2.1 Patch. Nephalem Rifts, the UI, Salvage All, a New Stash Tab, Kadala, and Transmogrification all have minor changes.
Believe it or not, this is just a taste of what is to come in Diablo III’s 2.1 Patch For a more detailed look at balancing changes and the minor changes to Diablo III, go to here. 2.1 Patch will arrive on PC tomorrow, while the patch is expected to arrive on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One at a later date. It’s unknown whether or not PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 will get the patch. Some of the new features on the 2.1 Patch won’t be on the console version, but most of them will.
My Opinion:
This is a massive patch that I feel like every fan of Diablo III can be happy of. Blizzard could have easily charge some of these, but they didn’t and I must applaud them for that. I don’t know when the patch is coming out to consoles but I hope to get my copy before it does. Diablo III looks to be the game to play as I wait for Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth.
Jesse Webster is a Senior Writer at MONG and is double-clicking at my mizzous. You can find him on twitter.
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