Diablo 3 2.1.0 PTR Patch Brings Changes to Greater Rifts, Legendary Gems, Shield Bash

Blizzard has published yet another update for Diablo III and Reaper of Souls on the Public Test Realm (PTR). The patch remains at version 2.1.0 with updates from August 5, 2014.

According to the listed patch notes, quite a number of changes have been brought to the game’s newly implemented Greater Rifts. There’s now a countdown timer that will be displayed when you start a Rift of Trials. And furthermore, players may not move items or change their equipment, skills, and passives while in these Greater Rifts (or even in town) before the rift guardian is defeated. As such, players may not exploit the difficulty of the Greater Rifts while within them.

Changes have also been brought to Legendary Gems, which now start at rank 0. Changes have been made to the frequency at which Legendary gems are upgraded. Because of this change the power of each upgrade has been reduced, but the overall rate at which gem power is gained through upgrades should remain roughly the same.

In addition to numerous bug fixes, various player skills have been rebalanced by the new patch. Biggest among them are improvements to the Crusader’s Shield Bash, which makes it a viable skill to use in any Crusader build.

Here’s what’s in store:

Movement speed while charging has been increased by 60%

Increased attack animation speed

Attack speed animation is now affected by Attack Speed

Skill Rune – Pound

— Weapon damage increased from 1200% to 1320%

The 2.1.0 patch is slated for release on the game’s main servers soon, but it’s set to undergo another round of testing before that happens.  Read the full patch notes.