Season 26 is about to start in Diablo 3 and will bring some quality-of-life updates. Some players should be happy about the map changes in particular.
What’s going on in Diablo 3? A few days ago Blizzard published a blog post about the upcoming changes in Diablo 3. The new Season 26 is just around the corner and brings some new content, balance changes and QoL updates.
In Greater Rifts, i.e. the endgame content of the game, the maps have been adjusted. Stupid maps were thrown out, new maps are added to the pool. We’ll show you what’s changed now.
New maps in Greater Rifts from Season 26
Which maps are going out? In the patch notes, Blizzard writes that two maps will be dropped from the Greater Rifts rotation and three new ones will be added.
- Out: Sewers of Caldeum and Hidden Aqueducts are out – They were very similar in terms of presentation
- New: Fields of Misery, Desolate Sands and Briarthorn Cemetery are added to the rotation
The Sewers haven’t been very popular with players in recent years. So for many, there is reason to be happy that they can no longer appear in Greater Rifts. Players can now find out how well the new maps play on the PTR.
What else has changed?
- Adjusted the chances of which maps are played in Greater Rifts
- Adjusted the chances of what groups of monsters you encounter in Greater Rifts
- The following monsters now give more GR progress and XP
- Blazing Guardians
- Smoldering Guardians
- Frost Guardian
- Noxious Guardian
- Shock Guardian
- Blood Clan Spearman
- Dark Moon Clan Impaler
- Moon Clan Impaler
- Blood Clan Impalers
- Ice Clan Impalers
- Hell Witch
- Vile Temptress
Additionally, you can now speak to Orek in town to shut down an active Greater Rift. Previously, you had to exit the game to do this. However, this only works if you are alone in a session. The developers explain the changes:
“We wanted to improve the Greater Rifts experience through Quality of Life updates, game balance changes, and listening to community feedback. We’ve reviewed all of the maps and monsters featured in Greater Rifts and revised the overall probabilities to ensure players are spending more time with the content they enjoy. Less spaghetti and more chickens.”
How do you like the map changes to the Greater Rifts? Is that something you like now or is it way too late? Some players point out that in the last few seasons it was easy to reach level 150 in the Greater Rifts and the maps became secondary. So should Blizzard take care of other content first?
