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Realm of Trials Changes Explained

Nevalistis posted on the forums a lengthy explanation to the recent change to Trial Rifts. It appears devs are not done tweaking the system to put players into the proper GR level for them, and we should have a hotfix in the near future! Check the details below!

Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

The Realm of Trials is designed to test your limits and, as accurately as possible, assess what level of Greater Rift you should be tackling. However, we also want there to be a small “safe zone” before reaching this limit, so completing the Realm of Trials should ideally land you a couple of tiers below your maximum capability. The Trials, up to this point, weren’t achieving this, so we’ve been working for some time to adjust them internally.

The adjustments to the Realm of Trials in Patch 2.1.1 had a few goals. First, we wanted to more consistently test your survivability. High damaging creatures weren't always spawning in each pack, which means your Toughness wasn't always being properly evaluated. Second, we wanted the Trials to feel less punishing for melee characters. And third, we wanted to mirror the monster variety you'd experience in a Greater Rift as best as possible. While the experience won't be identical, it should be reasonably close.

The changes to address these issues are as follows:

• We've adjusted how monsters will spawn during a trial. As part of this adjustment, we recategorized monsters into different “pools.” In the case of the Realm of Trials, a “pool” is a set of potential monster spawns that all have a specific theme. Different pools now include low hit point creatures that die quickly, slightly meatier “mid-ranged” enemies, tanky damage-soakers, and more consistent damage-dealers.)
• With this, we ensured that least one monster type from each “pool” spawns dependably.
• Monsters that run or kite frequently were removed from the spawn pools to improve the experience for melee players. To a lesser extent, this also lowers the need for players to have a “vortex” ability.

Finally, we realized that the reduction in keystone tier for multiplayer groups was too harsh. It’s intended that you receive a keystone lower than your theoretical maximum. The increased reduction for player groups helps counterbalance the higher capabilities of a group, especially when considering class diversity and buff sharing. We overshot that counterbalance initially, but this will be adjusted with an upcoming hotfix.
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I've made some adjustments to the original post that lend additional context. Hopefully that makes some of these changes a little clearer:

The Realm of Trials is designed to test your limits and, as accurately as possible, assess what level of Greater Rift you should be tackling. However, we also want there to be a small “safe zone” before reaching this limit, so completing the Realm of Trials should ideally land you a couple of tiers below your maximum capability. The Trials, up to this point, weren't achieving this, so we've been working for some time to adjust them internally.

That said, I appreciate the constructive feedback that's been presented so far. Thanks so much, we'll be passing it on. 
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Hotfix Thread
Hotfixes have been updated to reflect an upcoming hotfix. No new hotfixes have been applied at this time.

[UPCOMING HOTFIXES]

Greater Rifts

• The Greater Rift keystone reward from completing the Realm of Trials in multiplayer games will be increased
  
  • 2 Player groups will receive a key equal to their last wave completed minus four
    
    • Ex. If you completed wave 20, your group will receive a level 16 keystone
  • 3 Player groups will receive a key equal to their last wave completed minus five
    
    • Ex. If you completed wave 20, your group will receive a level 15 keystone
  • 4 Player groups will receive a key equal to their last wave completed minus six
    
    • Ex. If you completed wave 20, your group will receive a level 14 keystone (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Diablo's Popularity

Raptr's list of most played games of August showed that Diablo 3 might not be as dead as some would claim. It is ranked 6th as the most played game on that list, and said ranking will probably be higher on September, with Patch 2.1 and the first Season. D3 is only below the most popular MOBAs, WoW and Counter-Strike - even ahead of Minecraft! Does that mean we get a second expansion? Please, Blizz?

Witch Doctor vs GR 41

We haven't featured a lot of WDs clearing high difficulty GRs lately. So tonight, we have a WD solo running through a level 41 Greater Rift, from Alex Gillingham. He uses a standard Cold-focused Jade Harverster WD, which you can check in his BNET profile. Watch the run below!