The introduction of the Greater Rifts in Diablo III’s Adventure mode has led to a rise in ‘zero DPS’ builds to nullify mobs of monsters so other players can tear through them quickly.
This ‘drive for efficiency’ has led to issues, and Blizzard is now looking into tweaking the experience. One solution is to ”disable permanent Crowd Control” to ”create more interaction”.
”One of the key goals of Greater Rifts is that they serve as a form of measuring stick for a characters power growth, and we feel that scaling damage is a very important element of their ability to function in this way. That said, we’re currently looking at our options for some possible adjustments to how this damage scales in the future,” posted a community manager.
”We’re looking to disable permanent Crowd Control in an upcoming content patch to create more interaction with monsters at higher Greater Rifts levels. To complement that change, we will be also be evaluating how much damage monsters are dealing to players in that environment. One of our goals in the next major patch is to provide a more consistent Greater Rift experience while making sure that defensive Legendary items still matter.”
Greater Rifts put a time pressure on clearing a whole level of monsters to summon a mini-boss. Should you make it before the timer ends then you can gamble on upgrading a Legendary Gem or opt to tackle the next Greater Rift level. Naturally it’s caused something of an arms race.
It seems monster damage will be scaled down in the face of such challenging numbers, which should make up for not having these uber Crowd Control builds. No timetable yet on the next content patch but season 3 ends in a few months’ time.
