This blog is part of the series I am putting together about my experience in Season 3 in Diablo III. My main focus in Season 3, other than making sure I got my Crusader to Level 70, was to work on Greater Rifts.
Overall, I’m glad I decided to do that because there wasn’t much else to do in Season 3. There were much fewer Seasonal Achievements than in previous Seasons, so there wasn’t a whole lot to blog about. In addition, I really hadn’t put much effort into Greater Rifts before Season 3.
This blog shows how I did with the Greater Rifts in Torment 2. The screenshots you see in this blog were taken on June 4, June 7, June 27, and June 28, 2015.
In Season 1, I played a soft core Barbarian, who ended the Season being comfortable in Torment 3. I figured my Season 3 Crusader would do pretty well in Torment 2. She was at Paragon Level 51, and my plan was to move her into Torment 3 after she hit Paragon 60.
Torment 1 had started to feel almost comfortable. Would Torment 2 be a good difficulty level for my Crusader? I was about to find out.
Here goes the first Keystone of Trials – and first Nephalem Trial, in Torment 3. The highest I got in Torment 1 was Tier 13, and my last effort was in Tier 11 (which I was unable to complete). I had no idea where I’d be after this Nephalem Trial.
When the Trial was over, I ended up with a Greater Rift Keystone Rank 9. Not bad!
I completed my first attempt at a Greater Rift Tier 9 in Torment 2 at 8:42:100. My best time with Tier 9 was 7:50.549 in Torment 1. This attempt wasn’t great, but it wasn’t too bad either.
To my surprise, I received a Greater Rift Keystone Rank 12. So far, I skipped directly to Tier 9. I also got to skip Tiers 10 and 11. I must be doing good!
I completed Tier 12, in Torment 2, at 11:57.649. I’d never done Tier 12 before, because I got to skip over it when I was working on Greater Rifts in Torment 1. As a result, this is my best time for Tier 12. My Blood Shard Capacity increased to 620.
At the end of Tier 12, I received a Greater Rift Keystone for Rank 13. I didn’t get to skip any Tiers, so I took that as a sign that I wasn’t doing so well anymore.
I completed Tier 13, in Torment 2, at 12:25.883. That was now my best time in Tier 13! (My previous best time for Tier 13 was 18:10.116, in Torment 1, and I wasn’t able to complete the Tier before the timer ran out). As a result, my Blood Shard Capacity went up to 630.
This time I received a Greater Rift Keystone Rank 14. I’d never hit that Rank before. This was the highest Tier I’d done in either Torment 1 or Torment 2.
In my opinion, I failed Tier 14. I can’t remember exactly what happened that caused me to feel that way. The best thing about this Tier 14 run was that I was eventually able to complete it (after the timer had run out). I upgraded a Gem, something I’m working on in the hopes of earning an Achievement. My first attempt at Tier 14 was completed at 16:52.283. My hope is that I will manage to do better the next time I got into Tier 14 (if there was a next time before Season 3 ended).
Here goes my second attempt at a Trial in Torment 2!
This time, I received a Greater Rift Keystone Rank 6. I ended at 14, and am starting at 6. This made me think that I didn’t do too well in the Trial.
This time, I completed Tier 6 at 8:57.466. I’m fairly certain that I’ve never actually done Tier 6 before, so… I guess that makes this my best time?
This is the second Greater Rift Keystone Rank 9 that I’ve received while in Torment 2. I got to skip Tier 7 and Tier 8 this time around.
I managed to complete Tier 9 before the timer went off, and finished in 13:54.333. This is definitely not my best time in Tier 9. I was starting to notice that how well, or how poorly, I did in a Greater Rift can be affected by the setting it takes place in. There are some that work well for me, and others, (like the setting that comes from the Story Mode portion of the game where the Enchantress searches for her sister Lysa) that I have trouble with.
As expected, the next Greater Rift Keystone I received was for Rank 10. When the game stops letting you skip Tiers, that’s a sign you aren’t doing well.
I finished my first attempt at Tier 10 in Torment 2 in 9:32.983. That’s a much better time than my first attempt at Tier 10, in Torment 1, which was 12:46.116. It seems that the way to increase your Blood Shard Capacity is not by beating your best time on a particular Tier. Instead, the way to do it is to complete a particular Tier for the first time – no matter how long it took you to do it.
Once again, I got a Greater Rift Keystone Rank 12. I’d already done Tier 12 in Torment 2, so this would be my second attempt at it.
I wasn’t able to complete Tier 12 before the timer went off. So, I upgraded a Gem. This ends my second run through Greater Rifts in Torment 2. The highest Tier I reached in Torment 2 was Tier 14, which was slightly better than my highest Tier in Torment 1 (Tier 13).